


Spectrum Act 1: Legacy and Fear

by Arkaia



Series: Spectrum [1]
Category: Original Work, RWBY
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Alternate Universe - Dark, Angst and Humor, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon Rewrite, Crimes & Criminals, Drama, Modern Era
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-06
Updated: 2015-02-28
Packaged: 2018-03-10 18:34:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 63,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3299639
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arkaia/pseuds/Arkaia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After losing her home and family, a girl just entering her adulthood joins a military academy dedicated to slaying monsters in a misguided attempt at revenge. She meets old friends, makes some new ones and learns how to get over both her mental and physical scars, while simultaneously digging deeper into the darker side of familiar faces to find some semblance of positivity after a colossal event beings the world to the modern day precipice of the apocalypse. </p><p>Also, they make really stupid jokes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. To Ashes/Welcome Home

**Author's Note:**

> Well since I'm planning on posting what I have of my story “Spectrum” on Ao3, I guess I wanted to write a little foreword on what this series was, is and is going to be. I'm nowhere near a good writer and I can admit it. I went to college and took an advanced writing class; I thought the teacher had something against me, but in retrospect it was because I wasn't taking writing seriously enough. So I wanted to put a stop to that and begin to pen a novel to improve my writing skills. My friend was reviewing a webseries called “RWBY” and wanted my help, since I'm a fairly analytic person to come up with my criticisms for the series. So him and I watched the whole thing, I didn't like it much, he didn't either, but was a bit more positive. Though while we both decided we probably wouldn't insult anyone who belonged in that fandom, I felt like the premise was wasted potential. So I came up with this idea to kind of spin it my own way. But as I went further into developing the concept, I began to throw things away. Characters, locations, settings and plot to kind of forge my own, so while I am using a story using original material, I kind of based it off something else. That felt unfair to try and say it's “original” I don't want to profit off it, so I'm posting it for free both on Ao3 and my blogspot, at Spectrumnovel.blogspot.com. I hope you guys enjoy my shitty writing. :P

Chapter Zero: To Ashes

Two young teenage girls were walking down the sidewalk, one was slightly shorter in height, with long, red, wavy hair just past her shoulders. She was dressed in a male school uniform, a blue suit jacket, with the emblem of a hornet on it, along with a white dress shirt, a black tie, blue dress pants and black slip on shoes. A red scarf was wrapped around her neck, both ends swayed freely in the evening breeze. The taller one was also slightly lankier looking, with straight, platinum blonde hair wrapped up in a loose ponytail low on her head, the long locks swaying as she walked. She was also wearing a suit jacket, but a more feminine one, with a more dramatic curve for the jacket, and a black skirt that went to the knees, she also had long leggings up to her thighs, and a pair of black heels.

The two girls walked through the swaying hills and curving roads of the nicer district in town, the shorter girl spoke, her voice young, but deeper than the taller girl's. “Why do all the rich people live on hills?” The taller girl gave a friendly giggle, her voice was a bit more formal in tone. “Good question, Maria! Maybe they pay for the view, you can see the rest of the city from here.” Maria chuckled at the girl, turning around and starting to walk backwards to see if she could get such a view. The city was fairly large and pretty looking, Maria could see the glass skyscrapers shimmer, surrounded by smaller buildings of the city district. The large, wide buildings of the market district, and on the other side was the suburbs, where it became a grid upon grid of smaller square houses. She glanced off to one side, and a couple of miles down the road on the horizon was the battle academy that was built a couple of years ago. “I see what ya mean, Lily. Though it just makes me think people up here just wanted to look down on people.” Maria said to the girl, now known as Lily. Maria turned back around and looked at her while she talked. “Lily crosses her arms and gives a friendly smile. “Well that's one way to take it...” Maria walked up and patted her on the shoulder.

“C'mon, you and your dad live up here.” Maria said in jest. “Don't tell me he didn't do that at least once.” Lily sighed and shook her head from Maria's joking assertions, commenting on what she said. “I do, but that doesn't mean I look down on anyone... My dad is rich, that doesn't make me any special.” Maria laughed, looking at the mansion on the hill coming up in front of them. It was Lily's since Maria knew it was the biggest damn house she'd ever seen. It had at least a hundred rooms, and it was on the top of the highest hill that the brick paved roads can actually take you to.

“Whatever you say, lil' miss big bucks.” She remarked, walking up to the front gate of her home, it was a bit overkill to Maria. It was a security checkpoint with a motorized gate, two security guards standing at the gate. One guard was in the front, he had a standard looking guardsman uniform, and a sword strapped to his belt. He was in pretty good shape, as it looked like he was trained to combat any troublemakers who showed up. The other guard stood behind the gate, in a little control room full of buttons to control the gate. They both stopped in the front, where one of the guards addressed Lily. “You're late in getting home, Ma'am” Lily nodded and responded to his statement. “Oh, I know Rudolph. I just wanted to walk home with my friend.” The guard immediately announced in reply “I see that, but he still worried about you being 2 hours late.” Lily sighed, a palm rubbing her face as she returned to looking up at him. “Well, I'm sorry.” The second guard pulled the leaver, the automatic barred black gate swinging open, showing the brick road up a long curving path to the massive white mansion. “Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Maria. Are you gonna be at my Violin recital tomorrow?” Maria crossed her arms, shifting her weight onto one leg as she answered. “I'll ask my dad to drive me, hopefully I'll make it in time.” Lily smiled at Maria. “Great! I'll see ya then!” She said with unabashed joy, walking through the gates and having them close. The guard looked at Maria, but she just turned around to walk away, heading down the hill and back into the city.

 

Maria was walking down the road, thinking to herself quietly like she always did whenever she didn't have anybody to talk to. Lily was always a pretty nice girl, she was kind, friendly, and always tried to be at least a little bit humble about her money. But because of the name she gotten from her father funding weapons for the war that happened a couple of years ago and making a fortune off of it, the children at school would always insult and bully her. She would sit alone in the playground, barely holding back her tears from all the mean things they'd say. Maria chose to protect her, standing up for her when she couldn't. Ever since she did that for the first time when Maria was 8, they slowly became best friends. Maria didn't mind the money, she was more about getting to know Lily as a person, but sometimes being friends with a rich girl had it's benefits. Maria got to go to an awesome banquet for Lily's 14th birthday a couple of months ago, it was probably the best day of both of their lives. Apparently being the only friend of Lily is a title worth being respected for, as everyone was kind to Maria, even though Lily's father was too busy on the phone, away from the table to enjoy Lily's birthday with everyone else. Though, Maria wondered if he was always like that or not.

Maria, now finished with her thoughts on Lily, was just getting back into the city, she had to walk through another district before getting to her neighborhood, it was probably going to be another couple of miles. She looked up at her surroundings, cars slowly driving past her, homes on the left and right slowly passing by her, people busy living their lives as usual. Then then peered up into the sky, locking her gaze with the most noticeable thing. The rift....

Ever since she was a little child, the sky always had a strange feature to it, a massive black rip in the sky. It was like the sky was a picture, and someone pulled it apart at the seams to show what was behind it... A monstrous black rip that extended from horizon to horizon. Whenever it hit noon, the sun would fade behind the tear, making a 1 hour night. While people didn't know why the tear was there... where was at least a reason why. Strange monsters started appearing, falling from it and terrorizing cities with strange, almost magic abilities. That huge academy she saw in the distance was erected back when she was a little kid, it was supposed to be an academy for people who were learning to fight back the monsters, that's really all she knew about it. But she knew that at least while that school was there, she might be able to sleep at night knowing she wouldn't be attacked by those monsters, since she hasn't ever seen one before, maybe they were doing a good job.

The sun was starting to set, the colors of the sky changed from the light blue, to a dark and rich gold color, She smiled to herself, the winds were starting to get cold regardless if she was wearing a coat or not, but she loved how beautiful the city could get with the right conditions. She hummed quietly to herself as she approached home. Her home was pretty standard, it was in a neighborhood that had a bunch of houses build nearly exactly the same, as it was cheaper. It's pretty lower middle class, but she didn't care as long as it was comfortable. The outside was painted a pale blue color, the roof had black shingle tiles atop it, it was two stories, and she could see her bedroom on the second floor, facing the road and the city.

She walked up the stone walkway, gently knocking on the door before coming in, saying casually. “Mother, I'm home.” After a brief delay, a brunette woman, appearing to be in her late 30's came stepping out of the kitchen walkway, smiling at the black haired girl at the front door. “Welcome home, Mary! Dinner is about to be ready, so get out of your school outfit and meet me in the kitchen.” She said, Maria nodded, but asked a question or two before she left. “Where's dad?” The mom answered. “Oh, Michael is in the bed room, you know how much he likes that new TV...” Maria responded with a light chuckle, before asking again. “Did Sienna call?” The mother shook her head for no, Maria sighed quietly to herself. Her big sister was always busy at Spectrum, it's been 3 years since she left and she only visited home 2 times, she pondered to herself if they must be that busy, or maybe she just didn't want to visit her baby sister anymore.

Maria feigned a smile at Lorrie, walking up the stairs to her bedroom, shouting that “I'll be down soon!” She walked down the second floor hallway, seeing the door to Sienna’s empty room before heading to her own. Opening the door and heading inside, Maria didn't really care for style, it was a simple bedroom with walls a soft sky blue shade, a simple oak dresser and a small walk in closet to one side. Her bed was propped up on a metal frame with white pillows and dark red, stripped sheets. She kicked off her slip on shoes into the corner of the room, open the closet to look at her normal at home clothes. As she isn't one for style or standing out, her pallet tended to be very mute colors, she slid off her school jacket and dress pants into her tank top and shorts. She grabbed a maroon colored, long sleeve buttoned up blouse and a pair of gray colored jeans, staying in her socks as she sat onto her bed with a bit of a bounce. Her room was quiet, the only sound was the low hum of her ceiling fan.

But that wasn't the only sound for long, she heard a loud shriek, she jerked lightly from the sheer volume of it, it's cry sounding slightly muffled through the insulated walls. She leaned up out the window and noticed something strange... A jet black bird flying around. She tilted her head inquisitively, wondering if it was a crow who got lost from it's flock. But it was odd... It wasn't moving the speed she thought it should go.. and that shriek was so loud. The black bird flew over the house, before a loud crashing sound was heard, the entire house rumbling as dust knocked from the ceiling fell to the ground. There was another massive shriek, this one was so loud that it caused the window of Maria's room to shatter into dust, falling into the yard below, she stumbled forward, landing on her chest before getting back up. The room started to feel hot, and the sounds of muffled screaming erupted within the house. Maria flew into a panic, running to her door to open it. But the smell of smoke began to seep through the crack of the door and she wondered... “Did whatever hit my house just cause a fire?” she thought that was just her mind, but she realized she mumbled it as well. The shrieking again pierced her ears, her hands began to tremble and she started to fear what was on the other side of this door. She needed to find her parents and help them get out of the house, every single second she waited was another moment she wouldn't have, she turned the knob and opened the door.

The other side of the hallway was ablaze with a strange red flame, the fire spread quickly, she had a short window of opportunity, but as the staircase wasn't ignited unfortunately, the other side of the room that was ablaze was her fathers room.. She thought to herself, he couldn't have survived that... The blast of heat on her face knocked her from her thoughts. She rushed down stairs with an agility she's never experienced before from just the pure adrenaline stemming from her fear. She rushed past the living room, trying to make her way to the kitchen before she heard a rumble... The flaming hallway collapsed into the kitchen, causing a massive billow of ash, smoke and debris to fly out at Maria, the collapse was enough for her to nearly fall from the force. She waited for a second, covering her mouth as the entire house was ignited with the flames, turning dark, smokey and red. There was no sounds... no screaming, no breathing.. nothing but her own heart beat, the crackling of the flames and the burning of her home. She felt the tears well up in her eyes, she really didn't know if it was the smoke or the feeling like she just lost both of her parents that was making that happen.. but it sure felt like both factors were valid at this point.. Unfortunately, the door was covered with a massive billow of flame, she'd be cooked if she went through there, the kitchen was the only way to get to the back door. She decided to head back up the stairs, feeling the structure begin to collapse as she crossed, panicking and making a leap just as the stairs crumbled into the inferno, the stumbled to her feet, running to the door of her room and pushing the door open with her shoulder.

Her room was in pretty good condition, the smoke and the flames began to mar her personal belongings, but it was still intact. She needed to head out of the window and hope for a soft landing, she walked up, opening the window and pressing her back against the wall, getting ready to make the leap. She broke out into a run, but as she did, she saw... something she never believed. It was the head of a black bird. A bird so big that it's entire face covered her only escape.. It was jet black, red flames billowing where it's plume would normally be. It's eyes glowed an eerie red as it shrieked loudly at her, she screamed, leaping onto her stomach and sliding as it shot a monstrous amount of red flamed into her room, searing it black. The fire licked at her clothes, burning through them and searing her flesh. It hurt like a pain she could never have possibly imagined, it was like her skin was being boiled away to nothing. It was only a blast of fire lasting a couple of seconds, but it felt like forever. Her skin on her neck, back and arms were nearly melting off the bone, leaving just blood and exposed muscle, the charred remains of clothes barely staying together on the rest of her body. She heard a massive flap, the bird began to fly away... She was in so much pain that she couldn't believe it, she stood up on shaky legs, climbing into the seared frame of the window before her weak body gave out, sliding along the short tiled roof and falling 10 feet to the grass and broken glass below. She groaned, clawing into the grass and pulling herself further and further away from the inferno.

She got near the sidewalk before she passed out from the pain and injury, eventually, members of Spectrum showed up along with firefighters and an ambulance to pick up Maria and help the rescue of anything else left inside the home. Maria felt a stretcher underneath her chest, a slight rattling as people began to talk. “Is she the only one?” A male voice called out. A female one replied. “Unfortunately, we found the remains of others in the building.. this was the only one who we could recover.” the man pulled out a clipboard, writing something down on it. “To be honest, this girly is lucky enough to be alive...”

Chapter one: Welcome Home

Two girls were sitting in their dorm room, one sitting on one of the bunk beds, the other one sitting on the floor. They were hostile with each other and shouting insults as they debated. The skinnier, light haired one shouted at the other girl. “That very notion is appalling and you know it, My father is a good man! He wouldn't be stirring up things without any regulation like that.” The more athletic, taller girl contented that “Well, it still happened and my entire family was part of it. Your dad didn't curate or anything... He just sold to any buyer. He funded the whole damn war!”

The light haired girl scoffed, her bright emerald eyes looking with scorn at the black haired girl, they both appeared to both be young adults. The light haired girl had long, flowing platinum blonde hair to her shoulders, brushed to a shine like beaten silver from how pale the blonde really was. Her face had an oval shape to it, her features were slight and graceful, standing at 5'6 with a light frame, she was dressed in the female school uniform for Spectrum academy. She opted for a long sleeved white shirt with a deep burgundy vest over top of it, a neat white lace ribbon wrapped around her neck in a bow, a burgundy skirt went down past her knees, meeting a pair of stockings coming up from her shoes. Her eyes were rounded, her nose thin but slightly long to fit her face, her lips about average and her skin the color of a peach. The white haired girl stood up, crossing her arms. “That's just a baseless assumption... He wasn't the only person selling weapons.”

The girl in black was a couple of inches taller with a stronger build, wider shoulders and larger skeleton, built with some muscle under her athletic but sleek frame, her hair was longer and wiry looking in an unkempt way, pulled into a low ponytail with no bangs so they didn't get in the way. Her face was heart shaped, her eyes somewhat slanted looking like a narrow almond with a warm dark brown color. Her skin was tanner and rougher, she would be medium skinned if it wasn't tanned olive from often being in the sun. Her lips were rougher and slightly thicker. She was in a similar uniform, but was wearing a leather jacket over her white shirt and vest, her brow furrowed at the prissy rich girl. “Yeah, but he still did, and hes guilty of it! Your dad was a war monger, deal with it.” Lily clenched her fists, she hated hearing her family insulted.. She opened her mouth, inhaling and getting ready to shout at her as the door knob spun, slowly cracking open.

“What the hell are you two doing?” The woman at the door said in a raspy and slightly deeper voice than Lily. They both looked up at this girl, she was a slightly younger looking girl with a rounded face, standing at about 5'4. Her eyes were an unnatural red color, Lily knew this was common to people who received exposed to ash for an extended period of time, her father made her read all the brochures about safety protocols for handling the substance. Her skin was pale.. not fair, but nearly milk colored, she had slight tinges of red where the blood stream came closer to the surface of her skin, but it was still an oddly ghostly pale. Her eyes were rounder than Morgans, but still almond shape, her nose a bit shorter and slight on her face, her lips were thin but smooth, the corners naturally turning to a frown. Her hair was a deep crimson red shade, like a pomegranate. chin length but slightly unkempt, like someone cut it short and let it grow out naturally, her hair naturally parting to the right side to give her slight bangs to one side that covered most of her face. It had a slight luster to it, but it was still a bit disheveled looking. She was wearing the male school uniform for spectrum, a long burgundy cotton blended suit jacket with a black button up blouse underneath, a deep red tie over top of it stuffed under the buttoned up jacket.

Lily's eyes widened in surprise, it was Maria. It's been three years since she's even seen her, that would make Maria 15 to Lily's 16, but it's still be such a long time. “Maria!” She said, standing onto her feet and running to her, wrapping the slightly shorter, but more medium built girl into her arms, Maria sighed, not returning the hug but not really pushing her away either, her face remaining stark. Lily said with a huge smile on her face, like her father just got her a pony made of diamonds. “Oh gods.. I was so sad when I heard what happened... I'm so sorry I didn't visit you.. I don't know where they took you after you got out of the hospital...” Maria sighed, taking a step back and breaking away from the hugging. “I was taken to a boarding school.” She said, a matter of fact kind of deal. Lily thought how stoic and cold she sounded was a bit odd. “I'm so sorry about what happened to your parents...” She said, with a hint of sadness in her voice, the annoying girl sitting on the floor and looking up at the both of them didn't matter for a short while, until she stood up behind Lily and questioned them both. “Who's the goth chick?” She said, the dark rings under Maria's eyes gave her a somewhat look akin to that, but she wouldn't call lack of sleep any kind of new fashion trend. Lily turned and sighed at Morgan, explaining herself. “This is Maria.. She was my best friend for years.” Morgan rolled her eyes, shifting her weight to one side. “Great, another rich girl I can spend my life with for the new few years.” Maria glared at her, speaking with the same coldness she gave to Lily. “My parents died when my house burnt down and I have burns on over 50% of my body.”

Morgans lips curled into a slight frown, she didn't really expect that for a response. Lily walked over to the bed and sat back down on it, looking up at Maria as the red eyed girl carried her two bags over to an empty drawer. Lily questioned Maria a bit while she unzipped one of her bags, folding up some of her clothes and placing it into an empty dresser on the other side of the room. “If you survived, why didn't you contact me?” Maria responded flatly, it didn't have any malice or annoyance, it felt like she was just really distant. “I cut all my ties. You didn't contact me in the hospital so I just... didn't bother.” Lily frowned, her voice gaining in volume as she sounded somewhat frustrated by her aloofness. “Why though? We were friends. I could've asked my dad to adopt you or something.” Maria just quietly spoke while finishing the first bag, pulling out the other one for some of her other personal belongings. “And that didn't happen. Past promises tend to be hollow ones.” Morgan chuckled a bit as Lily's expense. “This is what you call a best friend? She seems to hate you as much as I do!” She said, with some bitter humor to her voice. Maria set down her bag, walking over to Morgan, leaning forward to look eye to eye with her, Morgans hazel eyes meeting Maria's deep red ones. “Just to let you know, I don't like you either. Don't you fucking laugh at either of us again.” She said, with a hint of malice in her voice. Morgan leaned back on her seat just a bit, wondering is this girl was out of her mind or something. “Or what? You even try to beat me up and you'd get expelled.” Maria didn't even flinch, or change her expression at her. “I'll show you my version of diplomacy.” She let go, the black haired girl stepped back and steadied herself, glaring at the angry little redhead.

“You got a lot of mouth on you, kid.” Morgan said, adjusting the lapel of her coat since it was all wrinkled by the girls balled fist grasping it. “Just who do you think you are?” The red head shifted her weight onto her other leg, crossing her arms and looking at the two of them, Lily stood up and looked over to her confused by her strange temper. “Maria Roth, and I assume you're my two dormmates?” She stated flatly, reaching up to adjust her tie. The damn thing was uncomfortable as hell. “Morgan Leland.” She stated, before pointing over her shoulder at Lily. “She's Lily Sterling... And also a liar.” Lily frowned, sighing frustrated at Morgans antics. “I've had enough of your childish antics...” Lily turned to Maria, looking at her blood red eyes. “So... Why did you join Spectrum?” Maria shrugged her shoulders, returning to her bag, placing a photo of her and her older sister, before Sienna joined spectrum in the first place. She answered, half busy unpacking her clothes and folding them into the empty drawer in front of her. “I came to learn how to kill those beasts with my own two hands, along with anything that will get in my way, Nothing more and nothing less.” Morgan sighed at Maria, her eyebrows lowering as she spoke. “Well you're just an exemplar of sanity, aren't you?” Morgan said sarcastically. Maria finished packing, placing her backpack over her shoulder. “The receptionist told me that our instructor was going to meet us on the dorm rooftop in 10 minutes, Let's get going.” Maria said, leaving the dorm room and leaving the door open as she head up the staircase of the four floor building. Morgan and Lily both followed as well.

They got to the top of the stairs, Maria pulling the bar to the door to creak it open, and upon the gray fenced rooftop stood a lone woman. She was staring away across the campus. She had long, dark red wavy hair to her shoulders, a black beret resting on top of her head and was wearing a white coat, with a long white skirt down to her ankles along with a pair of dress shoes. She turned around, her eyes were a soft blue color and she had a slight smile on her face. “I'm glad you've arrived early.” She said, her voice was gentle and friendly sounding, but one thing Lily noticed about her face. She actually looked very similar to Maria. Even though she was probably a couple of inches taller, and about approximately 6 years older from her more womanly facial features, if she had to guess. The woman turned around, crossing her arms at the three who arrived. Maria's eyes widened, as she just realized who this woman was. “Oh god, no...” The woman was actually Maria's older sister, Sienna. “Hey, Little sis!” She woman shouted at Maria, Maria quickly burying her face into her hands from the overwhelming surge of shame flowing over her like a dam ruptured via explosions. Morgan began to laugh loudly at the exchange, jokingly commenting. “Looks like the Nepotism Express arrived right on time!” Maria shook her head, briefly leaving the palms of her hands to complain to her. “Just shut up... It's not nepotism is I don't want i-.” Which Morgan quickly interrupted with the most mature response she's ever said. “Choo choo!”

Sienna smiled at them both. “I admit, I did pull a few strings to get me to be your instructor. I've set up this arrangement weeks before, when you sent in your application papers. The same goes for you, Lily ” She said, looking at Lily. Lily smiled and ran up to hug Sienna, which she quickly reciprocated. “I thought Maria having a team with people she knew would help her out a bit.” She explained, looking over at Maria, who is still trying to inspect the lines of her palms, by stuffing them both in her face.  
“Anyways,” Sienna said with a smile. “You guys are a little early, and your fourth teammate hasn't arrived. We need a minimum of 4 people to actually be called a team.” Lily let go of the hug, walking over to a nearby bench and sitting down. Lily raised her hand to ask a question. “Why do we need four people to make a team?” Sienna smiled at that question, knowing she totally read the brochure on common questions people would ask an instructor, and that was number 2. Along with 'What the hell is with the white coat?' She answered calmly. “The team requirement is 4 to 8 people, it allows the academy to split up enough people to finish the job, but not enough to pool all our resources and slow down how quickly we can react to emergencies. It's just the most efficient thing we can do.” Maria raised her hand to ask her own question. “What the hell is with the white coat?” She wondered. Sienna answered bluntly. “Instructors wear it, Maria.” Maria blinked a couple of times before flatly replying with “Oh. Why didn't I know that before...?” The door swung open behind Maria, She turned her head back to see a woman with sand colored, wavy brown hair slightly past her shoulders.

“Salutations, Madams.” She said, her voice was a bit... archaic. It sounded like those noblewomen Maria used to watch on those educational recreations. Those sucked by the way. She was wearing a frilly white long sleeved shirt with a pair of black colored dress pants. She was the second tallest of the group, being slightly shorter than Morgan, but taller than Lily. She had a diamond shape to her face, with rounded eyes and full lips, along with a warm hazel color to her eyes. She gave a friendly bow to the four girls sitting atop the roof. Morgan replies to her greeting first. “Who still calls people 'Madam' these days...?” The brunette scoffed, crossing her arms and walking past her to stand in front of Sienna. “Well you should go and see a linguist, as most people have forgotten how to talk like a proper lady.” Sienna smiled at the girl before speaking. “And that must be Robin, we're all here, so we can begin the initial test as soon as possible!” Maria stood up, walking up to Sienna as well. “Initial testing?” She pondered aloud, Sienna walking past them both and looking at the door. “I need to see how well you do in a fight so I can actually set up a training schedule. Meet me in the gym.” She said, leaving briskly.

 

All four girls began to follow her downstairs and out the gate, eventually getting to the gymnasium.


	2. Lashing Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria meets her team and their instructor, her elder sister and Spectrum veteran, Sienna issues a challenge in order to test everyone's mettle, this gets taken a bit too far.

The gymnasium wasn't just a normal sports gymnasium. It happened to be way too big to be some kind of sports arena. The top of it was open, the ground looked like solid stone, with white paint denoting certain markings atop it. Instead of bleachers, they were stadium seats. Each side had a large screen resting on top of it. Some big events must have been held there or something. The group entered up the stairs and through a tunnel, underneath the seating on one side. Sienna led them to a circle near the center before stopping all of them. “We're here.” She said, walking off to a small rack set up earlier and pulling out four wooden swords. 

“This will be what you fight with. They're not sharp or anything, but I still wouldn't want to be hit in the head with it.” She spoke, throwing each of the swords at one of the girls. Morgan and Robin caught their blades, Lily dropped hers, and Maria got smacked upside the head. “We're going to have a small fighting tournament,” Sienna stated, looking at Maria grumbling and rubbing the slight bump she just got on the head. “Each of you will have a fight with each person one time. We'll tally the scores when we're finished, and the person with the worst score will pay for the lunch of the people with the highest.” Maria sighed at that, she didn't even have any money on her at the moment. So either she'd have to cook the lunch herself, or figure out how the hell to get the money if she loses. This game just got much higher in the stakes, clearly. 

 

Maria raised her hand again “Who goes first?” She asked. Sienna responded casually. “Well.. Whoever wants to go first, really.” She began to slowly pace back and fourth between all four of them. Maria stepped forward, placing the wooden sword in her hands and resting it on one of her shoulders.

 

“I'll do the first couple of fights.” Maria stated eagerly, even with her stoic voice, everyone could tell she was pretty driven to not pay for lunch. Sienna grinned at that, pointing at Robin and having her step forward. “Alright! Robin vs Maria! Let me tell you the rules.” She said, guiding both of them into the circle, Maria and Robin standing on each side of it. 

“This circle is 14 feet wide, if you fall outside of it during the fight, you're the loser. If you fall and cannot get up for 10 seconds, you'll also be the loser. The fight will continue until one of those prerequisites are fulfilled.” She raised both of her hands, crossing them over one another. “Are you two ready?” She said, her voice much louder than usual. It seemed like Sienna was kind of excited to be hosting this mini tournament. Both of them nodded and Sienna lowered her hands to signify the fight was starting. Robin spoke up, bringing her arm to her stomach and giving a courteous bow. 

“I wish you the best of luck, Maria.” Maria sighed and crossed her arms, remarking with a quiet “Whatever...” They both slipped into a fighting stance, Maria holding her blade laxly on one side, not putting up any kind of guard. Robin held her blade out and upward, looking like she was more prepared to block something. They slowly circled one another, before Maria quickly dashed in for an overhead strike. Robin quickly reacted, crossing her blade against Maria's and making a hollow strike sound as it was blocked. Maria quickly took a step backward, evading a quick counterstrike from Robin. She dashed to one side to try and flank her, and even if Robin spun on her feet to keep up, Maria was surprisingly elusive. 

Maria quickly struck her blade into Robin's side, making her grunt a bit from the sudden shock of pain. But Robin quickly responded with a swift strike on the back of Maria's shoulders since she tucked down for that dash. Maria slipped on her feet, landing right onto her chest and face against the solid stone ground from feeling it topple her balance. Maria quickly composed herself and got back to her feet, she was expecting Robin to take the initiative and hit her while she was down, but she was in the exact same position as before, it seemed like she wanted this fight to stay as fair as possible. 'Is she looking down on me?' She thought to herself, she would have totally hit Robin if she got knocked down... Is she trying to be courteous, or rude? She got back into her stance, but saw Robin broke out into a charge, instead of going on the defensive, Maria tried to trade strikes. 

Robin struck Maria hard onto her shoulder, so hard it actually began to sting and feel numb for a couple of seconds, Maria pushed into the strike, using the momentum of Robin's dash to smack her firmly on the chest. Robin winced, but stayed focused, stepping back and ducking low to land a spinning blow on Maria's leg, causing her to almost trip once again. Maria caught herself this time, pushing off a leg to make a quick leap a couple of feet away, before spinning around and making a blind slash at the air. She missed, but Robin once again charged in, this time landing a combo. Her chest, arm and side were all hit as Robin smoothly connected these moves together. Maria growled in pain, gritting her teeth and reaching up to swing and smack Robin upside the head. 

 

It actually connected and a quick gasp of pain came from Robin. She shook her head a couple of times to recompose herself as Maria leaped in for more strikes. Jumping into the air and bashing her on a shoulder, before ducking back down and smashing her weapon into Robin's thigh. Maria backed off again, looking down to notice that Robin was standing only a couple of feet from the edge of the circle. If she could topple her, she would win this match. Maria spoke out under her breath, panting between breaths as she was starting to get worn out. 

“Just one more...” Robin responded, hearing what she just said even if it was spoken quietly. “I'm right here you know, give me your best attempt.” Maria growled before charging her, and Robin quickly smacked her weapon on the side of Maria's neck, using some quick footwork and pushing Maria to the edge instead, Maria stopped her momentum, noticing her position, but she was in a pretty terrible spot to maneuver. Robin cornered her in one swift step. Maria decided that the only way out of the situation was to turn on some major hurt.

She began to swing as hard and fast as she could, some hits whiffed, some would firmly strike Robin on her chest, shoulder or the side of her stomach. Just swinging a barrage of hits left and right, hoping the offense would make her back away so she could reposition. But Robin just gave a straight glare at Maria, she was somehow shrugging off all those wild hits thrown her way. She responded with one swift, upward strike. It smashed into Maria's chest so hard the breath escaped her lungs, toppling backward and falling onto the ground, just outside of the ring. That hit Maria so hard she was dizzy, even her ears were ringing, but through the haze, she heard Sienna yell. “Robin wins against Maria!” Robin turned around and smiled at her instructor, before turning back and extending a hand. “You're quite intense,” She said to Maria, offering to help lift her up. Maria sighed and got back up using her sword as a crutch. Robin continued. “And you fought bravely, I commend that.” Maria responded with “I don't need this...” She skipped the handshake, just hobbling back to the rest of the group frustrated at her loss. Morgan gave a friendly chuckle from seeing how that fight turned out.

“Wow.. Robin beat your ass.” The amusingly remarked, hoping that Maria might see some humor in the situation. Maria said nothing, just taking a seat on the ground beside Lily and Morgan instead. Lily then commented “You did really well, Maria...” Maria rubbed her shoulder to ease some of the pain, looking up at Lily quite nonplussed. “Then why did I lose?” Maria stated to Lily, but Lily just smiled reassuringly, it was hard for Lily to ever get mad at her. “You have two more chances, don't act like its over.” She said, ruffling Maria's hair in her left hand. Maria just sighed to herself in frustration. 

Sienna pointed to Lily and gestured her to come over. “Lily and Morgan will fight the next one.” Lily nodded, walking into the circle, Morgan following and heading to the other side. Morgan chuckled to herself, commenting to Lily. “Oh this is going to be fun... Beating up a hypocrite for a bit.” Lily sighed, shaking her head a couple of times. “I'm not going to even bother commenting on that one... Lets just fight.” She said frustratedly at Morgans accusations. Lily held out her blade nearly straight, getting into a stance that almost looked like she knew what she was doing. Morgan bounced back and fourth onto each leg, before shifting her weight down and gripping her sword with two hands. Lily took a deep breath, waiting for Morgan to make the first move. Morgan launched into the air with jump, slamming her sword downward against Lily, who tried to knock it away to parry it, but she didn't have enough strength, the blade bashing her right into her shoulder hard enough to make her slide back a couple of feet. Morgan following it up with a heavy strike right into her stomach, forcing her onto one knee as she smashed the sword into her back, Lily bounced off the ground once before smacking right back into it, groaning in some pain, before noticing Morgan was going for another overhead blow, she rolled onto her side and quickly stood back up. 

Morgan took another swing, but Lily shifted backward to dodge it, going in for two compact swipes at Morgan's chest, it was quick enough to make an audible snapping sound as she swung the blade, Morgan quickly shoved her back so she couldn't land any more of the combination, before taking another big swing, this one whiffing through the air. Lily realized that she couldn't afford to keep getting hit with how hard Morgan could swing that wooden sword, if she got nailed hard enough she could either lose her balance or get knocked straight out. So she kept to her strategy, every time Morgan would go for a swing, she'd try to flank her and land a couple of hits, hoping the damage would build up and chip away at Morgan's stamina. And for the most part, it was effective. Morgan got more frustrated and her swings became more predictable, thus safer to dodge. Her breathing started to get heavy from all the movement Morgan had to do to keep attempting attacks, while Lily would continuously duck in and out to hit and run her way to her own victory. 

'She must be tired enough to actually fight, now.” Lily thought to herself, diving in to see if she could land a final blow, when all of a sudden, she heard a ringing sound. The entire stadium was sideways, and she was laying on her side against the cold, hard stone floor. In the distance, she heard “And Morgan beats Lily!” She shook her head and sat up, having no idea what happened. All she could see was the black haired girl walking away, setting the sword on her shoulder and grinning like an idiot. Lily sighed, getting up and walking over to Maria. “What just happened?” 

Maria looked over at Lily, as Maria had enough time to recover her stamina. “It looks like you got your head caved in by Morgan when you went for that final blow. It sounds like you had a blast.” Lily sighed at Maria's explanation. “I don't even remember getting hit...” Lily said quietly. “Well if it makes you feel better, I remember you getting hit.” Maria responded with a flat sarcasm to her tone. “Lily crossed her arms, one of her hands reaching up to rub the welt on the side of her head. “That doesn't help at all, Maria...” Lily remarked, kind of missing the boat on Maria's jokes.

Sienna walked over to the side and pointed at Robin. “Since Morgan seems pretty eager to go, we might as well get her second fight out of the way.” Robin nodded, heading into the circle. “I'd be honored to have my second fight with you, Morgan.” Robin said, giving another bow. Morgan smiled and spun her sword in her hand a couple of times. “Save the formalities, Robin. It's just a fight, not a banquet.” Robin chuckled lightly, giving a grin to Morgan. 

“Respect is the highest honor you can give someone you're fighting.” Morgan shrugged at that, reaching up and scratching the back of her head with a free hand. “If it's the highest respect, I wouldn't be giving it out to everyone.” 

Robin nodded some, reaching into her pocket and pulling out a hairband, pulling her hair into a ponytail before wrapping it into a loose bun of golden brown hair to keep it out of the way for the next fight. “Yes, but I consider m-” Maria cut off Robin's speech with a loud heckle. “Oh my god, Shut up and fight already!” Maria shouted, hands over her mouth to try and make it louder. Robin sighed and shook her head, saying quietly under her breath. “Kids...” Morgan responded by shaking her own head. “Yep... Kids.” 

They both got into their fighting stances, both opting to hold the weapon by two hands. They slowly circled one another, waiting for the other to strike. Morgan approached, going for a heavy overhead swing, but Robin tilted her blade to the side, quickly making them clash and effectively blocking the move. Robin responded by knocking the blade aside and smacking the sword into her side.

Morgan swings from one side, and Robin blocks it again. Before pushing Morgan back a couple of feet with a quick shove. “Wow... you actually are going to face me and not just run all over the place.” Robin retorted, not breaking her sharp gaze at Morgan. 

“I'm a fighter, not a ballerina dancer.” Robin lunged at her with several strikes to the chest and shoulder, before Morgan countered with a heavy blow to the side that made Robin wince. The fighting continued, Morgan's attacks were vicious but Robin kept a tight defense, either blocking or parrying her attack, or exchanging hits. Morgan’s hits retained their power, but began to slow in pace thanks to Robin's constant focus on negating damage and whittling her down with hits. Over and over again, sharp counter strikes continued to whittle away at Morgan's power and patience. Annoyed, Morgan began to ramp up her assault once more, pushing forward with her attacks to make Robin's blocks cause her footing to step backward so she wouldn't lose her balance. 

Morgan ducked down, spinning and striking at Robin's legs with enough force to actually cause her to fall, Robin quickly got back up onto her feet, but Morgan took the advantage. Slashing upward, smacking her right in the chin, making her fall straight onto her back, just outside of the circle to signify her victory. “Two wins in a row for Morgan!” Sienna shouted, Morgan raising one of her fists into the air as she walked back to the bench. “How 'bout that?” She smirked at both of Maria and Lily. Maria just stood up and walked right past her without saying a single word, and Lily did the same. 

“H-hey! At least pay attention...” Morgan complained to no one, Lily helping Robin back onto her feet so they could fight next. Robin walked over to sit on a nearby bench, rubbing her chin as it was quite sore at the moment. Sienna grinned seeing Maria and Lily step up to the plate, they both had a pretty big loss and were looking to make their record at least break even. “Alright! Childhood friend combat it is. Lily Sterling vs Maria Roth!” 

Lily smiled at Maria, who was adjusting the cuffs of her coat, unbuttoning both of them and blowing some air to move her bangs out of the way. “I hope you do your best, Maria.” She said, giving a little bow. Maria just glared up at her, “Do you think if I hit the other side of your head hard enough, your ears will stop ringing?” She said sarcastically. Lily sighed, placing her hands onto her hips. 

“Does everyone have to come up with some weird comment to tell me before I fight?” She wondered aloud, since it was the second time this sort of thing happened.

Maria without a moments delay answers. “I was legitimately curious. Now let's go.” She said, lowering, holding her weapon somewhat in front of her, but low to the ground in a fighting stance. Lily responded by going back into her fencers stance, the fight begins by Maria shouting and dashing toward Lily. 

Maria slashed a couple of times, once high, twice low. Lily dipped backward, leaping over one strike before sidestepping around the second. Maria quickly turned on her heel and dashed again, taking a flying leap at her for the next attack, but completely whiffing it once again to Lily's footwork. She dashed one more time, which shocked Lily when she noticed Maria's crazy swing and movement speed. Making her assault a constant barrage of attacks and moves. All Lily could do was retreat, even if Maria wasn't hitting much, it seemed like getting too close to her was dangerous. She noticed that Maria was trying to corner her by putting her in a position where she couldn't sidestep her attacks without leaving the area. So when Maria ran in for the next attack, she did the only thing she could, smash her sword into Maria's leg. She instantly stumbled past her and went careening out of the arena, landing face first out of the ring with a thud. She quickly stood back up and was about to step back into the ring when Sienna stopped her. “Lily wins in under a single minute!” Maria looked shocked, but gritted her teeth to shout in frustration. “THIS IS A FARCE!” She said, screaming. “You need to restart this right damn now...” She demanded of Sienna to start that fight over, but Sienna shook her head.

 

“Sorry lil sis, you fell out of the ring, there's nothing I can do.” She said, sounding a bit sad she had to tell this to Maria, but it was still true. “S-she tripped me up! We should start over...” Morgan began to break out laughing at Maria's colossal screw-up. “Sienna sighed softly. “Sorry Mary, that's two losses.” Maria stomped at the ground once or twice, muttering various profanities as she returned to sit with Robin and Morgan. “Wow Maria... You just totally blew it.” Morgan commented to her, Maria turned her head and shouted at her. “YOUR MOUTH IS MOVING. STOP THAT!” she said, seeming to forget some of the basic conversational skills she used to have.

“Pfft.. Whatever Maria.” She said with another laugh, Lily crossing her arms and waiting for Robin to walk up for the next fight. “It seems like you've had formal training, Lily.” Robin observed, walking into the ring, her sword currently slipped under the belt just above her skirt, Lily nodded gently. “My father set me up with an instructor for a couple of years, once he learned that I wished to join Spectrum.” Lily replied. Robin drew her sword and Lily got into her combat stance.

“I'd like to inform you something about combat,” Robin remarked to Lily, Lily's expression unbroken. “No matter how much footwork and swordplay you learn, a real fight is more about being adaptive and efficient. There's no room for flair or panache, you need to stay practical. Who taught you how to fight?” Robin asked, Lily inspected her sword a bit more before looking at her. “Cyrus Laurence, Fencing gold medalist and one of the best swordsmen in Rosewall.” Robin smiled some. “Ah... that makes much more sense. That man probably learned how to fence for points.. but it's still not an actual fight.” Lily growled slightly at that, slashing the air with her blade. “He taught me well, I'll show you how much I trust his style...”

Robin nodded, and the fight begun. Lily spun her sword a couple of times, before lunging at Robin. Robin responds by firmly guarding, but Lily spins her wrist for a quick second smack. It was very light and Robin didn't even react to it. Lily leaped back a step before launching another lunge, but the blade was swatted down by Robin's before Lily could even react. 

Robin quickly swung the blade back upward, smashing just under Lily's chin. She groaned and had her head launched back, before stumbling away to recompose herself, but Robin decided to follow up, lunging in to get a couple of free hits in. Lily felt the stinging of the blade hitting her flesh, and quickly picked up a guard, constantly blocking Robin's blade with her own. Wooden clacks echoing through the area. Lily dashed under one of her swings, spinning and landing two hits while twirling on her toes. But Robin quickly swung to the side, turning on her heels instead of toes. The hit was hard enough to send Lily onto her back in the center of the circle. 

Robin allowed Lily to stand, getting back into form before they both dashed at each other. Lily swung low to hit Robin in the stomach, but Robin swung and sharply stuck on the side of her neck. Nearly instantly causing it to welt and bruise. She didn't hit anywhere as hard as Morgan did... but it felt like Robin was whittling her down with hits at the exact moment she wouldn't want one... She took every opportunity to strike, waiting patiently for each one to show itself. Robin's face showed incredible focus, just glaring at Lily's body motions like a hawk. Lily was forced to take the defensive once again.

Robin stood completely motionless, blade ready to strike, but not reaching out for a blow. Lily began to dance with her feet, taking any opportunity to dash or sidestep just in case Robin comes after her, since two can play at that game... but it just didn't happen. Robin waited to strike and it felt like she'd be here for an eternity unless she take the risk. Lily gulped, dashing in to strike. But as soon as she did, Robin lunged in as well, striking her firmly in the stomach hard enough to cause the air to escape her lungs. She groaned and tried to shift her weight back to escape, but her legs slipped from the constant forward momentum. Taking the full blow and just backing away normally instead.

Robin jumped on that opportunity, Dashing in and landing more and more blows onto Lily. She got more focused and began swaying her body, hoping to land some hits, but the swings were so relentless that ant hit she landed was too light, so he was forced to back away... She backed away more and more, and suddenly Robin stopped attacking. Lily stood there confused for just a brief second before looking down... 

Her leg stepped over the line, She just lost. Lily sighed, looking at the floor disappointed, before Robin took her hand and smiled at her. “You did much better than I expected.. But don't ever feel like you can't improve on what you have so far. As soon as you think you're done, you've given up on learning.” Lily smiled at that, shaking her hand gently and quietly giving her a “Thank you.” between her heavy gasps for air. Sienna applauded the both of them as they returned to the nearby bench, Maria getting up and walking back into the ring for the last match along with Morgan.

Morgan smirked a little bit at Maria. “You ready to be 0 and 3, Roth?” Maria just glared at her, quietly responding with “I'm not going to lose again.” Morgan chuckled. “Oh really?” She bemusedly asked. “I learned how to fight against people on the street, so I know what I'm doing. You just picked up a weapon, probably for the first time. There's a reason you're inexperienced.” Maria smirked at that, throwing her sword away, it bouncing a couple of times before sliding to a stop. “You're right, actually. I never used a weapon before,” She said, taking off her jacket and tossing it aside, leaving her in a long sleeved white blouse and a black tie. She loosened the tie and punched her fist into her other palm. Morgan grinned at that, tossing her weapon away as well, balling her fists some. 

“Oh... So THAT's how you want to fight, it's your funeral, kid...”

“I am NOT losing again...”

Maria spread her legs wider, dipping down and pulling her fists up to her face. One arm was leading, and the other was pulled farther back, Morgan just had a looser stance, her fists up as well. Lily noticed this and looked over to Sienna. “Is this alright for them to do?” She asked her, Sienna sighed. “Looks like it's going to happen regardless.” Lily looked over and nodded, Robin speaking up to comment. “Maria seems to be using a pugilist's stance. I didn't know she was that type...” Lily commented on that statement. “Is Morgan also using a pugilist style?” Robin shook her head. “I think that's just something a brawler would use...” 

Their conversation is cut off as Maria dips in, ducking her head to quickly land a short one two combination into Morgans stomach. Morgan swung at her, but Maria quickly dipped her head backward, swinging another punch at her face. Morgan shook her head, Maria didn't really hit too hard, but her punches had a sting to them and were fast as well. Morgan swings a heavy haymaker upward at Maria, but only glanced her face as she backed off, bouncing on her two feet just a bit to get ready to make another dive. Morgan gestured her to come at her again, and Maria dived in, this time swinging a hook at Morgans face. But Morgan blocks with one arm, squeezing on it so she gets slightly delayed in pulling away and drilling Maria in the side of the face with a wild hooking blow. Maria’s head snaps to one side, before tucking in, swaying her head and landing a hook into her side. It wasn't a super heavy punch, but Maria was trying to wear her stamina down.

Maria was shaken up by how hard that hook was, but honestly it didn't seem like she cared. She grit her teeth as her ears rung, and Morgan took a swing at her stomach. It was like she got hit with a sledgehammer, all the wind bashing out of her stomach, it was actually a hard enough punch to make her briefly lose contact to the ground from it lifting her. Morgan then swung an elbow onto Maria's shoulders, smacking her into the ground, but Maria rolled into it, ducking off to the side and getting recomposed. “Want more?” Morgan asked Maria. Maria chuckled a bit and smirked at her. “Keep trying.” Morgan dove at her, pushing off with her legs and quickly closing the gap, smashing Maria in the side of the face, before Maria began swaying through the punches. She suddenly leaned up and clocked Morgan with an elbow of her own. Morgan growled in pain, rubbing her face as Maria followed it up with four punches into the chest and then the face. Morgan stomped down on Maria's foot, making her grit her teeth and stop her swaying, Drilling her in the side of the head hard enough to knock her down. 

Maria rolled over, standing back up and quickly continuing the assault. Slamming a knee into her gut to give her a similar reaction to Morgan's earlier gut punch. Morgan was briefly stunned, and Maria took the opportunity to give a heavy overhead swing, cracking her straight into the jaw. She got knocked for a loop, stumbling around just a bit before shaking her head. The vision of Maria looking blurry as she dashed to continue the onslaught. Landing fast punches into her stomach and rib cage, before landing a leaping hook into her chin, causing her to stumble and fall onto her side. Maria looked like she was backing off, but ran up to slam into Morgan's stomach with a kick while she was on the ground. Hard enough she slid away and coughed loudly from it. 

 

She released a shout of pain as Maria kicked her again and again, Morgan, sick of this grabs her leg on the fifth kick, standing back up and holding her by the leg. Maria gently hopped backward so she couldn't be toppled over. Maria put up a guard, but Morgan just punched straight through it. Smashing her in the face a couple of times before lifting her leg high enough where falling over wasn't an option anymore. Maria fell flat on her back, Morgan diving onto her and beginning to slug her over and over in the face. 

 

Maria grit her teeth as her face got nailed from the same side of her face over and over again. The heavy punches smashing into the side of her, it started to feel kind of wet, and she noticed that she was bleeding out of the mouth, a red stain forming on the gray colored stone underneath. Maria was getting just pummeled on, Lily covered her eyes from how violent this was getting. “They're out of their minds, someone needs to stop this!” Sienna sighed, it was a cringe worthy sight, but she still wasn't sure she could stop this without causing a huge rift on day one. She replies to Lily. “I'll stop if it goes too far... I promise.” 

Maria was still getting drilled, but her head was starting to get fuzzy. The only sound she was hearing was the ringing, and the pain slowly dulled into a numbness. Her vision began to tunnel.. Right on Morgan's angry face. Maria suddenly snapped back into consciousness, blocking her punch with on arm and gripping firmly onto Morgan's head. Shouting loudly and smashing her head right into Morgan's. Morgan shouted in pain as Maria lurched back and started slamming her head over and over into Morgan's skull. The dull thud sound was horrible to hear, and both were shouting in pain, but Maria wanted Morgan to get the hell off, so she just smashed her head into hers over and over. The pain was still dull, but she could feel her head rattle with every heavy hit. Morgan finally backed away, rubbing her head from just the sheer amount of pain that was. Maria, felt her legs quiver. Those headbutts hurt her way more than it did Morgan, but she got off and that's all that Matters. 

Morgan suddenly looked shocked, Maria looked at her confused until she lost sight in one eye, she groaned and started rubbing it to see again. Once she pulled her sleeve away, she noticed it was now soaked with fresh blood. She was busted wide open from all those headbutts and the warm, wet substance began to pour in a crimson mask over the rest of her face. Morgan commented, still surprised but not wavering in confidence. “Damn, Roth... You're not afraid of anything are you?” Maria took a couple of breaths before shouting back at Morgan. “I. AM NOT. LOSING!” Maria lifted her hands over her face, sliding up it to wipe all the blood off at once. Her bangs being pulled back to reveal the huge gash right in the center of her head, her face still looking kind of red from the leftover blood, she clenched her blood soaked fists and gestured Morgan to come at her again. 

Morgan dove in, slamming a punch into her stomach. Maria coughed up another large amount of blood and began to stumble. Morgan landing more and more punches to her face, sides and stomach to cause her to waver, but not fall. Maria swung wildly at the air, missing more and more as Morgan piled on the punches. Maria got more desperate, her swings getting heavier and wider until she hit a strike against Morgan. She turned her body toward her, she realized that she couldn't go on the defensive anymore. She felt her body beginning to give up on her and she needed to get Morgan down before she ran out of energy. She took Morgans punch, before returning her own. She no longer backed away from Morgan, instead leaning into the punches so she had a shorter swinging arc. 

Morgan began beating down on Maria, but Maria would trade a punch for every single one Morgan gave, before it literally turned into them just standing in the middle of the circle, trading hooks back and fourth. Morgan would slam Maria, Maria would drill Morgan,this would go back and fourth over and over again. Morgan beginning to bleed from the mouth as well, but much less blood than the red fountain Maria became. Maria leaned even more into the punches, pressing her body so close to Morgan's that they touched, smacking her in the jaw with one hand, and the side in the other. Morgan pushed back against her and returned her own punches, before pushing Maria away. Maria stumbled back to near the edge of the circle, stopping just before it so she couldn’t fall over.

 

Morgan backed up to the other side, panting deeply from all the punches they were trading. “Sorry kid.. it's over.” She said, lunging down to dash in, ready to strike Maria and knock her out of the circle. But Maria met Morgan with a surprise. Leaping up just high enough to smash her knee right into Morgans chin. It was such a huge hit that it almost like Maria just kicked her head off. She ran into that with ALL of her momentum, along with Maria's jumping momentum just caused a train wreck of a hit. Morgan shouted in pain, standing up and gripping her face from just being absorbed by how much that hurt. Maria shouted at her. “I WILL NOT LOSE!” She said, diving in to land hooks left and right on Morgan's face. Her head swaying left and right with little resistance to Maria's tired, but passionate punches. Maria felt like she was on the brink of passing out as well, but she needed to hold on for as long as she could. She just swing left, then right, and then left again. Just constantly barraging her with punches, Morgan slowly backing away, but she wasn't focused enough to reposition. 

Maria ducked down very low, before leaping up and slamming a huge uppercut into Morgans already damaged jaw. She got sent slightly upward before falling back like a cut down tree, smacking into the ground... and just outside of the circle. Maria noticed this, gasping in shock and then raising her fist into the air. Leaning her head to one side to spit a bunch of the blood out of her mouth.. It tasted like copper and it was awful. She turned away, slowly stumbling back to the bench, before taking a seat on it and lurching over, breathing shallow, pained breaths.

“That was viscous...” Lily muttered, surprised by how savage and out of control that fight just got. “Maria... Are you out of your mind?” She wondered. Maria couldn't talk, just breathe in sharply. Sienna walked over to Morgan, who was slowly getting up. She actually wasn't in as bad of a condition. She just walked over while holing her head, looking down at Maria's hunched over form and sighing. “You are possibly the most insane person I've ever met, kid... But you at least know how to kick some ass..” She said, walking away from the whole group.

 

Sienna went after her, trying to get her to stop. “Wait, you're both hurt! We need to get you to the physicians and healers..” Morgan looked back at Sienna, shaking her head. “I'll go see them when I think I need it. Take your sister there right now, Crazy girl needs it..” She said, slowly leaving. Robin helped Maria up onto her feet, as she lost all of her strength, Lily pulling Maria's arm over her shoulder, Robin grabbing the other as her feet slid along the ground. Sienna started to walk with them.

“Well... When we get Maria to the nurse, I'll start making notes about what you guys need practice at.” Lily nodded and sighed. “Sienna..?” She said, Sienna replying. “Yeah...?” Lily looked down at the floor, looking visibly upset. “Maria's different...” She stated, her voice somber and a bit upset. Is this what the death of her parents turned her into? She's nothing like she used to be, and it was actually a bit frighting to see her teenage friend only a couple of years later not even caring if she spilled blood all over the place just to win a petty fight. Sienna nodded, and gently rubbed Lily on the top of her head. “Yeah... She's nothing like I remember. But she has you and me in her life again... Maybe she can get better.” She acknowledged, finally getting to the office, stopping just before they head in. Lily sighed, looking at the bloody pulp Maria turned into, and then looked at the automatic doors of the clinic. “I hope so...” Lily said, still unsure of herself.

 

“We can do it, together.” Sienna affirmed, the door swinging open and both of them walking inside with Maria, as Robin turned to head back to the dorm.


	3. Siblings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a quick trip to the hospital, plans are made out for an upcoming exam. Maria meets the secondary team she'll have to team up with as they select weapons, she also sucks and has no money.

The bright morning sun glowed through the shutters of the window, and onto Maria's face. It shined straight onto her face, making her eyelids uncomfortably bright. She groaned, covering her eyes with one of her hands as she slowly climbed out of the bed she was in. The floor was hard and cold, as she noticed she had no shoes on. Her head began to throb some, she groaned and gripped her head firmly. Instead of hair, she felt cloth around her head, as if all of her forehead was bandaged. She walked to the window, pulling down the blinds and turned around to inspect the room.

It was oddly sterile looking, but she could tell this was some sort of hospital. It wasn't the one in the city, since she recognized that one like the back of her hand after 2 years of rehabilitation. This one was much bluer in color and the rooms were smaller. After being in that hospital for so long, she started to dislike being in one. Always having to have her bandages changed by some nurse she didn't even know, always wearing those thin, loose gowns which made her feel more exposed than she'd ever want to be. 

She looked up, there was a small TV attached to a piece of metal bolted to the ceiling that was just showing the current weather. Since it was summer and they lived in Rosewall, A continent further south than Astra, a place known for being a frozen over wasteland 80% of the time... Summer was hot. She walked over to a counter and grabbed a paper cup to fill it with water using the sink. Her mouth was dry, like she sucked on a cotton ball in her spare time. 

She quickly drank it down, before pouring the cup full again and drinking it some more. She crushed the paper cup in her hand and tossed it at a bin halfway across the room, It missed. “That never works...” Maria muttered to herself. She looked down, looking at her body and noticing that she was dressed in the typical blue loose cotton gown. A band of plastic was wrapped on her wrist. M. Roth, followed by a bunch of numbers and code that the staff probably knew was written on it. She grabbed her shoulder, slowly spinning her arm around to stretch it, she felt the back missing from her gown to expose her back and shoulders, but wraps around near her waist, she could tell from the slight throbbing pain her burn scars get when they contact open air. 

She hated wearing the gown, so she began sifting through desks and bins to see if she had any clothes, but they were missing completely, so all she had was the gown for now... The growled to herself, walking over to a chair and taking a seat. When suddenly, there was a knock on the door. She stood back up, slowly walking to the door and cracking it open. Lily stood on the other side, holding a small bouquet of flowers. “O-oh! Maria, you're awake!” Maria arched an eyebrow at that, wondering why that's so strange. “Is that a surprise?” She said, pulling the door open and letting her in. “Yeah it kind of is... The doctor said you'd be out for 3-4 days. And you're up in two! So that's something.” Maria crossed her arms, trying to hold the gown still since it was only hanging on by the sleeves and a rope around her waist. “Two days?” She said, surprised. Lily nodded. “Yeah.. you were out cold and they had to stitch you up. They said the medication would knock you out for a while.” Maria blinked a couple of times, trying to process that. “How badly was I hurt, anyway...?” Lily set the flowers down, placing some clothes on a nearby desk. 

“Well, if there wasn't healing magic here, they said you would need about 17 stitches for the cut on your head and the ones inside of your mouth. Also you had a moderate to severe concussion, one of the nurses told me on my last visit.” Lily answered matter of fact, walking over and picking up her bouquet again. Maria walked over, grabbing the clothes and inspecting them. They seemed like the clothes she brought when she moved in. Lily spoke over her shoulder as Maria held up the blue colored shirt. 

“Your shirt and tie had blood all over them, it's hard to get the blood out so we've been washing it constantly. Your jacket is back at the dorm.” She said, handing Maria the flowers. Maria inspected it, it was a mixture of yellow and white flowers. “Those are Chrysanthemums. I thought they were pretty, so I bought them for you.” She said with a sheepish smile. Maria gave them a sniff, looking up at Lily. 

“You know, Chrysanthemums are usually used at funerals, right?” Maria observes, Lily blushed from embarrassment, taking them back from Maria's hands with a bit of panic. “OH GOD I am so sorry! Uhh... I didn't know that. THIS ISN'T A FUNERAL!” She said, panicking a little bit. “It's whatever” Maria said, trying to brush off her losing her mind. “I don't mind, I guess... Thanks for my funeral, Lily.” 

Lily still looked embarrassed, Maria looked up at her, still holding onto the bouquet. “I need to get dressed.” Maria stated, Lily suddenly snapped back to normal, nodding some and exiting the door. Maria turned around and began to take off her gown to get dressed. Lily was about to close the door, but wanted to look one last time. She saw Maria's bare back. Her skin was kind of ashy, but most of her back was actually a deep red looking scar. She knew that Maria went to the hospital but she didn't know the burns would still have those massive scars all over her back and shoulders. She closed the door as Maria got her clothes back on. 

The door swung open, Maria took off some of the bandages on her head, leaving only the ones on her forehead. Her messy mouth length hair covering some of her face once again. She was dressed in a blue dress shirt and loose black denim jeans. She also got her boots on as well. Lily smiled at her, walking away and down the hall as she spoke. “Alright, good. Let's get to the courtyard, Sienna said we needed to meet some people. Maria followed behind, but she was trying to shake off how dizzy she felt now that she was walking around. Eventually stumbling over her two feet and falling face first on the linoleum. Lily gasped, running back and lifting her back up. “Are you alright?” She asked her. Maria rubbed her head and groaned, standing back up and leaning slightly on Lily to stay supported. “Oh yeah... Just not used to walking yet.” Maria responded, though she knew she must have been more injured than she assumed she was at first.

They walk together out into the courtyard, a pretty standard grassy field with sidewalks and a fountain at the center. Morgan, Sienna and Robin were all seen sitting on a bench near the fountain. Sienna and Morgan both stand up to meet them both. “I'm glad to see you back, Sis.” Sienna said, walking up and ruffling Maria's hair just to make it look a little messier. Morgan chimed in with a comment of her own. “Hey, those flowers for me?”

Sienna flicked Morgan on the head with a finger, making Morgan respond by rubbing her head and glaring at her a bit. Maria looked down and noticed she didn't ever set down the bouquet. She smirked some, walking over to Morgan and placed them in her arms. “They're used for funerals, Have fun being dead.” She said deadpan. Morgan chuckled a bit and held them in one of her hands. Sitting back in her bench as Sienna gestured Maria to come take a seat. “We're waiting for people, come on and sit down.” Maria nodded, getting out of Lily's grip and walking over to sit on a bench as far away from Morgan as possible. Lily sat with Maria, since she didn't want to even bother talking to Morgan.

“What people are you talking about?” Maria wondered aloud. Sienna smiled a bit as she explained to all four of her subordinates. “Well, you know that most teams are assigned 4-8 members. But teams are also assigned with something called a 'sister' team. This team is supposed to work closely together with your team. Occasionally for missions, you'll have a team member from the sister team added if they specialize in something the original team doesn't have.”

Maria rolled her eyes at the idea, but Lily seemed excited. She hopped out of her seat and exclaimed “More people!? This is gonna be so cool...!” She hopped on her feet a couple of times, looking at Sienna as she became curious. “Do you know who they are?” She said, but Sienna only shook her head softly. “They're just names on a clipboard at the moment. We're supposed to meet here very shortly.” 

“Convenient, ain't it?” A woman said from behind the fountain. She wandered out in front of the small group of girls. She had long, well kept black hair going well past her shoulders and reaching her lower back, bangs draped on each side of her face along with a black eye patch covered one eye. She wore a white dress shirt along with the complimentary white instructor coat and white dress pants with black slip on shoes. She appeared to be a couple of years older than most of the people here. Maria could guess she was probably in her mid 20's. 

“Oh. There you are, Ashley!” Seinna remarked. The woman crossed her arms and walked over to take a seat in the bench adjacent to Maria and Lily's. “A pleasure to meet you, Sienna Roth. My team will arrive shortly.” Sienna nodded, but commented as well. “What was the hold up?” Ashley sighed some, leaning over to the side to see if they were walking into the courtyard yet. “They got annoyed that I wanted to skip lunch to meet up with my sister team, So I let them eat their sandwiches in peace.” Sienna blinked a couple of times. “...I actually forgot about lunch.” She said flatly, slightly dumbfounded by forgetting a thing so obvious. 

“You can have it after this, I'd rather not be delayed twice in a row.” They all looked up as they heard voices shout from a distance. “We're done!” Said a boyish sounding one. “Weee! I'm a bird!” Said a somehow MORE childish but at the same time, slightly deeper sounding one. A slightly deeper male voice states flatly. “Birds flap, you're pretending to be a plane, not a bird.” A quiet female voice responded to that. “Maybe he's a combination of a bird and a plane?” The deeper voice male brushed it off. “That's just absurd.” 

Maria leaned back in her chair, inhaled the warm summer air and just spoke just under her breath. “And here comes the stupid...” Leaning back and glaring at the partly cloudy blue sky shining in the light of the late morning sun. The 4 other students arrived and Maria got out of her seat to inspect them over. They stood in a line shoulder to shoulder, arms behind their back as each one gave a bow.

The first one was a kind of small looking guy. He was still taller than Maria but he had a pale and sort of withered look to his body, like underneath his school uniform he was built like a twig. His face was friendly and looked like an actor for someone cast as a prince in a school play since he had kind of a girly look to him with his chin length bright gold hair framing his face. He wasn't Maria's type but she could see the appeal others would have for him. He had bright blue eyes and bowed his head first. “Jonah Delaney. It's nice to meet you all.” He said, introducing himself. 

The next was also a guy. He was dressed in the alternate color school uniform for the guys. A white suit with a red tie, a black dress shit underneath it with black lined lapels. His hair was a complete mess. He his hair was a brownish red color, but it was very long and messy looking, as just a huge mop of long hair draped all over past his shoulders and upper back. His skin has a slightly more tan tone to it, He also had brown colored eyes and a kind of goofy grin plastered on his face. “I'm Gabriel Caine! I love meeting new friends~” 

“Is that really his name!?” Morgan said between the chuckles she broke out into. “You belong in a comic book or something...” She added.  
“I love comic books!” He replied excitedly, his eyes gave off a head in the clouds look, and Maria quietly wondered how many times did he hit his head falling down the stairs as a baby. Jonah commented at him shouting like that. “Buy them later, Man. We have stuff we need to do.” He said, bumping Gabriel's shoulder with the back of his hand. “Fiiiine.” He said disappointed from not being able to get comic books. 

The next was a girl, she had long ginger hair pulled back into a low ponytail and fair colored skin. She seemed just short of Morgan, but looked a bit less athletic overall. She was wearing a waistcoat over top a dress and long skirt combo. She looked at the floor, hands twiddling together some. “E-erika Wolfe... Yeah...” She said, quietly it was obvious that she wasn't good around new people. She quickly turned around and walked away to take a seat on the fountains edge, not really looking at anyone else.

Jonah shrugged from her acting like that, quietly explaining to the rest of the group. “Oh... She's just shy with new people. She was like that with me as well until yesterday. Then I found out she loves racing slot cars and we hit it off.” Erika looked back, quietly sighing to herself. “I heard that, you know...” Jonah chuckled, rubbing the back of his head and sighing. “Sorry!”

The last was slightly taller than the rest, a boy with medium length brown hair parted to one side. He was dressed in a waist coat with frilly sleeves to his shirt along with the standard burgundy colored pants. His green eyes shining as he gave his own bow. “I am Florence Goldshore. A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” Lily turned to him, eyes lighting up with curiosity. “Did you say your last name was Goldshore..? Like... House Goldshore?” The boy nodded. “Though, after the national government got established all we have is the name and the manor we reside in.” Lily squeed a little bit and grinned like a doof at him. “Yeah, that's pretty lame. But I still always wanted to meet royalty!” She said enthusiastically, but Florence just tilted his head at her. “But, you've already met royalty,” He explained, though she just looked confused by that. 

“My older sister is on your team.” He added, pointing to Robin. Robin smiled and walked up to give him a hug. “I'm glad you made it here safely.” Robin said. He was even taller than her, but to Lily that brought up one question. “If he's your little brother then how old are you two?” The boy released the hug and looked at her. “I'm 15.” He quickly stated. Robin added onto that with “I'm 22.” Suddenly Sienna looked a bit shocked, Morgan walked up to eye at them both some

Morgan chimed in. “Isn't 22 a little old to be a student?” Robin scoffed at that. “I'm still in my prime, I have another 20 or so years before I'd actually be over the hill” Sienna looked at the floor, sighing some. “I thought the teacher was supposed to be older than her students! I'm only 20...”  
Robin laughed and patted her on the back in response to help her cheer up. “You probably are still more experienced than I am.

Sienna nodded, before cleaning her throat and standing up on the fountain, it was still a bit wet so she slipped on her way up, but steadied her balance. “Now, the reason why we're all meeting today!” The crowd of boys and girls gathered at her feet. Everyone except Maria, who was just sitting on the bench and looking like her usual self. Also known as being insanely grumpy. “We got the requisition documents today, we can go to the armory and pick out weapons!” Maria looked up with a sigh. “That's it?” Sienna glared and continued. “Well, we were going to do an exam today to test your teamwork skills. But since you got injured we have to do a rain check.” Maria rolled her eyes, and Florence raised his hand. “Yes, Florence?” Sienna said, taking his question.

 

“But I have my own weapon, why should I get a second one?” He asked, but Sienna just smirked at that. As that question was the 5th most popular question in her instructional instructor instruction manual... err.. handbook. “Well.. Allow me to get long winded for this one.” She said, clearing her throat in preparation. “The weapons crafted by the companies that craft these weapons have to use a special material. This is known as Crimisanium Ash, or Ash for short. These were found from the bodies of the monsters that we've managed to defeat so far. But Ash is quite similar to the Ash found from the bodies of the cremated or the burnt husks of trees and can't be turned into anything alone. This must be either synthesized into an amalgamate material or heat treated into an alloy.” She explained thoroughly.

She got off of the fountain and continued to speak. “These Crimisanium Ash infused weapons allowed the people who used them to learn special abilities, such as controlling their natural energies and using it as a force known as Pulsing. It also let us figure out that each person is tied to an element of the world, and can be cast as a kind of spell to use. This would be impossible otherwise, but Ash isn't a miracle substance regardless of what people tell you.” She slowly approached Maria and looked down.

“Being in contact with Ash for too long, or being subjected to too much magic can cause Ash poisoning. This is 100% fatal, but if you manage to get a small enough dose... You get blood red eyes and nearly paper colored skin instead of every part of your body bleeding internally all at once.” She said, pointing at Maria as an example. Maria just looked away at the ground, crossing her arms, she felt a bit insulted, but just didn't want to make a scene.

Seinna continued to explain, slowly walking away from them and gesturing with one hand for all of them to come along. They formed a line and began to walk just behind her along the sidewalk. Slowly passing by all of the school buildings along the way. “To get back to your question, these new weapons are sold to use and get infused with Ash to make it a little easier to hold back the monsters. That's why you need the new ones in the first place.” Florence nodded, walking just behind her. “I guess I kind of get it...” He said. Sienna looked back at him with a smile “If you have any questions, go ask Maria. She's kind of a big history nerd once you get to know her.” He nodded, but kept quiet.

Jonah walked beside Maria, looking her over before talking. “So uhm... How are you doing miss?” He said meekly, Maria looked back at him and shrugged her shoulders. She reached up to take the bandage off of her head, throwing it quickly into a bin just to have it miss. She groaned, running over and slamming it into the bin before running back. “Just want this day over with already.” She muttered annoyed at her suddenly large group she had to be with. Jonah looked at her forehead, noticing that it looked to be freshly cut, yet somewhat healed over. “Where did you get that cut?” He wondered aloud, Maria answered flatly. “I smashed my head into someone else's over and over again.” He cringed gently and made an eek like sound, turning away from her and looking at the floor. “What's bothering you?” Maria pinched her forehead at that, she didn't want this guy to play amateur psychologist with her, she didn't even know him in the first place.

“Too much to talk about.” She said, with a slight groan at the end. Jonah awkwardly rubbed his arm and looked up at the sky, the fluffy clouds slowly drifting overhead. “Sorry for asking...” He said, not really sure what was the best way to actually talk to her. “I just want my weapon so I can go lay down.” She said to him, walking slightly faster to walk beside Sienna and ignore pretty much everyone else.

They arrived at the armory, it didn't look like a huge building at first, but when Sienna opened the doors, they were proven wrong. All that was above ground was just the staircase TO the armory.

 

Sienna once again began to explain. “You get one weapon for free, if you ever want a second weapon you have to buy it. Next week we'll get you guys your own personal armor, but first we'd have to get everyone’s measurements so they fit.” She pumped her fist and started walking down the stairs. “So let's get started!” The actual entrance to the Armory was pretty tightly guarded. There was several fully armed people dressed in armor standing at the door. And you could only assume there was going to be more inside as well, giving out weapons to people has a high potential danger and they're there if anything goes wrong. 

One man walked up in front of Sienna, and she quickly pulled out her student ID. He nodded some and stepped aside. “Take your time, everyone.” He said enthusiastically, and the whole group headed inside. The entire group began to walk the aisles, each one had weapons propped up against the wall or standing on a stand attached to the ground. The variety was pretty impressive, and it had pretty much every type of weapon you could want. Lily walked along with the entire group, her jaw hanging slightly open. “Wow... This is really impressive for an armory.” Maria gestured them to walk a little faster, breaking away from the group so they could look for weapons themselves first.

“So, Maria...” Lily lead into her question with a feeling of curiosity. “Did you pick what you want your weapon to be yet?” Maria shook her head at that question, her head cocked to the right to see all the weapons in one row. “Nothing has interested me yet.” Lily nodded and began to ponder to herself. “I imagine you using something cool... How about a scythe?” She asked, Maria sighed and shook her head. “Those are farming tools, Lily.” Maria commented, looking at the floor for a second. “Wait, they are?” Lily asked, Maria looking at her and giving a nod. “Yeah, and as soon as we fight evil demonic grass I'll consider it. But since we're not... Hell no.”

Lily began to giggle a little at that. Yeah, this Maria was a lot more bitter and cold than her old self but Lily always appreciated Maria's ability to say something absurd with a straight face, she enjoyed her random deadpan remarks on the stranger thoughts she'd tend to have. 

Lily kept walking with her friend, when something catches her eye. It was a blade with a dramatic curve, it looked like it was more for slashing and almost not for stabbing at all. This piqued her interest. So she reached out to pick it up. She lightly swing it through the air once or twice and began to inspect it. “I think that's called a Scimitar.” Maria observed, Lily nodded and smiled. “Honestly I think this might be a good start.” Lily said, Maria tilted her head slightly and quickly retorted. “I thought you were good with a Rapier.” Lily nodded and pointed her blade toward the floor, finding the sheathe it belongs in and slowly strapping to her waistline while she replied. “Fighting Robin made me realize something. While fencing is a very flashy sport and learning is good for sport... I really doubt how successful I'll be. It was like my attacks had no power behind them no matter how many times I made contact... I want to try something different.” 

Maria shrugged her shoulders and sighed some. “Whatever makes you feel better, I guess.” She said, reaching out for a weapon she saw while talking to Lily. It looked like a spear until she had it in her hands. Usually a spear has a pointed, yet short blade for stabbing. But this pole arm looked like someone placed a sword on the end of a long rod. She slid her hand along it and looked it over. Lily went to peer over her shoulder, noticing a small latch near the hilt of the blade. “Oh... there's a switch!” She said, gently twisting it to one side, and suddenly the blade fell off, clanging against the ground.

Lily's eyes widened from being shocked and surprised, yelling in a panic. “OH GOD I BROKE IT. I am SO sorry, Maria!”

Maria looked down and noticed something about the detached blade. “Hold on a second” She stated, slowly bending down to look at it. When it wasn't attached to the glaive, it seemed to be just a longsword. It had a hilt with a cross shaped guard on it and a deep red handle. “The blade seems to be detachable...” She said, grabbing it and lifting it up to reattach it to the end of the pole arm, when suddenly she felt dizzy. 

It was like there was a massive ringing noise in her ears, suddenly her skin felt cold but she broke out into a sweat, her vision began to blur and a sharp pain formed in her head. She shrieked and dropped the blade, backing away quickly and tripping backwards, landing flat on her back. Her breaths were heavy and her eyes were wide open. Lily ran over, bending down to grab onto Maria. “Maria! Are you alright!?” Maria kept breathing, slowly the panic began to fade. “My head started to hurt... But it's going away now.” She said, groaning and standing back up, rubbing her sore head. “Maybe you still have that concussion...” Lily stated, gently lifting her hand to Maria's forehead to check if she had a fever or anything. Maria reached over to the carrying case of her weapon, noticing that she can twist the hilt and cause it to telescope into itself for compact carrying. She placed the blade and the folded up pole all into the carrying case and strapped it to her back. 

“We might as well see what everyone else has picked out.” Lily said, sheathing her blade on the new scabbard she had wrapped around her waist. Jonah was inspecting a sword and heater shield, Morgan opted for a heavy two handed sword that was strapped to her back. Robin was carrying a longer partisan spear than Maria's, Gabriel found bladed cat o' nine tails, Erika found a huge battle axe even bigger than Morgan's claymore, and Florence found a different bow and arrow to use.

They lined up in front of Sienna, she smiled at all of them and nodded. “Alright, so all of you have your weapons. Unfortunately you cannot always have them with you, you'll need to put them into storage at your dorm until you actually need to use them. After this occurrence anyone caught with a weapon on campus will get fined or suspended depending on how you act because of it.” She stated, placing her hands on her hips and looking at all of the people, Ashley gesturing her team to move out first, leaving Sienna's team as the only ones who were with her.

“Alright, we'll start the exam once we know Maria is fully recovered from her head injury.” They all nodded in response. “You guys should head back to the dorm and store your weapons, that's all you need to do for today.” Morgan walked forward, folding her arms. “What about that lunch?” Sienna laughed a bit and scratched her long red hair a little bit, slightly embarrassed from forgetting. “Oh, right! Well before you guys head back, Lily and Maria need to pay for your lunches.” 

Lily reached her hand into her side pocket, pulling out more than enough money for a lunch and giving it to Robin. “Here ya go, Robin.” She said with a smile, Robin took it from her and bowed her head just a bit. “I appreciate it, but it's more money for a lunch than I was thinking. If you want, I could get you something while I'm there.” 

Lily gave a light nod. “That would be great, thanks.” She turned to Maria, who was currently looking at a wall covered with racks of weapons, tapping her foot. “Well? How about my reward?” Morgan commented, hands on her hips. Maria growled and looked at the floor, muttering quietly. “What was what?” Morgan said teasingly, raising her hand to her ear and leaning toward her.

“I DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY! Okay? I just... don't.” 

Lily frowned a little, pulling out her wallet and giving a bit more money to Maria. Maria slid it into her hands and inspected it. It was once again.. way too expensive for lunch. Did she just not know how much lunches cost in general? 

“Now give it to Morgan, Maria.” Maria glared at Lily, a look of confusion on her face. “IF YOU WERE GONNA GIVE IT TO MORGAN, WHY GIVE IT TO ME?” She shouted, stomping the ground with one foot. “Well... So you could give it to Morgan!” Maria just planted her face into one palm, Morgan reaching for the money and pulling it from Maria's hands with a “Yeeee-oink” coming from her mouth. 

Maria groaned, walking past the entire group, arms pumping from the sheer amount of annoyed exhuming from her. “Don't spend it all in one place, dick.” She said, slamming the door behind her and heading back to the dorm on an empty stomach.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to get a couple of chapters out so people can sort of... have enough to read of it.


	4. Reason

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Morgan, who is well known to be somewhat abrasive takes a trip to where she grew up, using Lily's reward from the mini tournament to help out and catch up with some old friends.

Morgan took the money she got and quickly pocketed it. Maria insulted her on her way out but honestly she was thick skinned enough to know that wasn't even close to the worst thing she's ever heard. She had the rest of her day free to do whatever she pleased, so first she headed back to her dorm to put up her huge sword somewhere safe. She crossed Maria who was busy leaning up against a wall and staring at the sky, so she didn't even bother to talk to her on the way in. 

She opened the door to the closet in her side of the dorm, slipping the blade into a big carrying case and zipping it up before leaning it against a wall. When she opened the door, there stood the somewhat shorter angry teenage redhead everybody 'loved' Maria. “What is it?” Morgan asked her, leaning against the door frame. “Nothing... Just.. Nothing.” She said, turning her shoulder and grazing past her quickly. 

Morgan shook her head and slowly went over to grab one of her own bags she used to unpack a couple of days ago. Maria climbed onto the upper part of her bunk bed, the carrying case for her weapon in hand, Morgan said nothing to her and gently closed the door behind her. 'She's really inconsistent...' She thought to herself. Maria always seems to flip back and fourth between quiet, sarcastic, loud and sad at pretty much random times. She's never really gotten to talk to her before, but she's not even sure it would be anything pleasant, it's probably more likely to be an argument. 

It's not like she hated Maria or anything, Maria had a lot of bad shit happen to her. You can't really get out of that and end up as the same person you were before. But even then, if she's going to have the same room as Maria does, she'd rather have Maria actually be pleasant to be around and not just... whatever the hell she currently is. 

Morgan headed out the front door of the dorm, walking along the courtyard and into the parking lot placed just to the side of the front gate. She pulled a key from her pocket to pop the seat open to her dark red colored motor scooter, pulling out a helmet and pulling her black hair out of the way of her eyes while she put it on her head. She replaced the seat, and turned on the ignition, getting on it and twisting the gas handle a couple of times to warm it up. She slipped the bag onto her shoulder and slowly pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road.

The shadow hours began while she was driving. The sun would drift behind the rift around noon and last a couple of hours, making it look like a mixture of a sunset and an eclipse, luckily it wasn't really too dark and she could drive without turning on the lights. She finally got to her first destination, a small corner market she could get supplies from. She turned off the engine and climbed off, with the bag over her shoulder and resting under one arm, the pushed the door open with one hand, hearing a little bell ringing that was attached to the door swinging.

“Welcome!” An elderly man said at the front desk, Morgan walked up and nodded her head. “Do you mind if I use this big bag for what I'm going to buy?” The old man nodded, adjusting the cap on his balding white haired head. “Oh it's fine, Missy. Just remember to pay for it.” She turned away and began walking the small aisles. “Of course I will.” 

She walked into the canned goods section, looking over the price tags and grabbing what she could, stuffing them into her big shoulder bag.

She wouldn't stop filling it until it was much heavier than before, stacked to the brim with cans of soup, pasta, fruit, vegetables and sauce. She carried the entire thing to the front, placing it in front of the elderly man with a soft thump from the weight of it. “Do you have something I could take on the go?” The old man nodded. “You could probably get one of those milkshakes from the refrigerated section. “Go ring that up, then. I'll get one of those milkshakes for myself.” He nodded, pulling out cans and slowly scanning each one. 

“What do ya need all these cans for? You doin' a picnic or something?” Morgan shook her head, grabbing a milkshake and placing it beside him for him to scan after he was finished. “I had some left over money, so I wanted to give it to some people who need it more than I do.” He nodded, scanning the last and charging her the money. She slipped him the 100 Geld note and he gave her back a couple of coins in change, she pulled them over her shoulder and waved to the old man as she left. “Have a good day, lil' lady.” He shouted to her as she closed the door. 

The scooter started back up, chugging a bit from the extra weight, but once it got going, everything was mostly back to normal. Getting to her next destination was quite the long drive, and those bags would probably start hurting her shoulder after a while but honestly she didn't mind it much. 

The city was quite a nice place to live in, it was one of the bigger cities in all of Rosewall. It received a lot of attention recently for being one of the biggest economical powerhouses after Ash was introduced along with Spectrum being built. But that brought good attention along with the bad. People began to sell Ash weapons in unofficial channels, knowing that most people had no right to use it unless they had an academy license to do so. 

Citizens didn't like how they were so restricted on using these weapons to protect themselves. They had people to protect them, but they always had to rely on someone else they didn't even know for their safety. So people actually protested it at first, saying that they wanted to be able to protect their own homes and families without having the Academy have to travel there and possibly fail.

People have come to accept it more recently, but some people use the ash weapons to hurt more than protect. This caused a massive rift in the community and a lot of violence broke out over it. Even a war between Rosewall and Astra, a country to the north over how important the weapons were going to be. Morgan knew Lily's father was pretty much the main driving force behind that choice, refusing to license anything that wasn't directly sponsored by him pretty much caused a monopoly on the whole market. 

Her thoughts continued to wander, looking at the construction workers slowly repairing a building with their huge construction tools, the monster attacks have been causing less collateral damage in Riverside, but she wished that was the news in the rest of Rosewall as well. The damage and death has been nice and steady on the outside, these academies were still being built and they've only been starting to get marginal success recently. 

She pulled around a corner and parked her scooter once again, hiding her helmet and tucking the keys back into her pocket when she turned it off. She kicked the stand and walked along the sidewalk, before coming before a rather large building amid the suburban homes. It looked like a re purposed church, the walls were slate and made of stones, held together by mortar. The windows formerly used to be stained glass, but were replaced with oddly arched windows instead.

She walked up the staircase, it was stone and lined with more stone on each side to lean onto, she got up to the wooden door, hefted the bag back up to her shoulder and gave it a couple of heavy knocks. There was a silence, but the door slowly creaked open with a sound that only a couple hundred year old church could only make. 

A woman stood in front of Morgan, she was in her 40's, her hair was a silver shade of gray and pulled into a low ponytail. Her skin was tanned, and besides a wrinkle or two on her lips and forehead she still seemed healthy for her age, She smiled at Morgan, stepping aside. “Welcome back, Morgan.” She nodded her head, stepping inside and looking around.

“Wow, this place never seems to change.” She commented softly. The older woman nodded, giving a slight chuckle. “Yep, Greyhill Orphanage has been pretty much the same for decades now. Same old stone and mortal walls, same hard wood floor as it's always been.” The older woman said, looking at the bag over Morgan's shoulder as she hefted it onto the table. “What did you bring?” Morgan opened the back, grabbing some of the cans and pulling them out, holding them in her hands. “This place is still non-profit, right?” The woman nodded. “Well, since I came across a bit of money recently, I wanted to make a donation of food to you guys.” 

The woman smiled and ran over, gently patting on Morgan's shoulder, Morgan kind of had a couple of inches up on her since she was pretty tall compared to the older woman. “Oh thank you, sweety. I know most people who live here usually want to get out when they become an adult, but I'm really happy you seem to enjoy actually coming back.” 

Morgan nodded, taking the bag again and shrugging her shoulders. “I've lived here most of my life along with my brother Nick. I felt like I should thank you guys for taking care of us when no one else would and donating seems like the best way I could” The woman nodded some, leaning onto a table. “Well there is another way you could help, Why don't you just volunteer here?” Morgan shook her head with a sigh, grabbing some of the cans and taking them to a nearby food cabinet. “I'm sorry, Annette. I'm with Spectrum now, They don't let people work on the side or anything. All I can do is these short visits and not much more.” 

She nodded some and grabbed some cans as well, putting them up along with her, but letting Morgan get the higher shelves thanks to being a good 5-6 inches taller. “Yeah... But that academy is dangerous. You're risking your life to help people when you could just help here instead.” Morgan shook her head, finishing the cans Annette couldn't reach, walking over and leaning against a nearby wall. “Nowhere is safe, Annette. One of the people on my team had nearly her entire family killed off while they were at home. I'd rather just... face the problem people are suffering from head on instead of just repairing and providing relief in their wake.” Morgan explained, her voice much calmer than whenever she spent time with her team.

Annette closed the cabinets, turning to face Morgan as she walked toward her, placing her hand onto Morgan's shoulder. “I know, Morgan. You always wanted to look your problems in the eye. But still... I helped raise you with my grandmother, before she died. I just don't want to see people I took care of getting hurt.. That goes for you, your brother and anyone else who ever walks through these doors when they need help.”

Morgan smiled with a sigh. “Honestly, I'm still glad this place is still up and running.” Morgan said with a smile. Annette nodded, releasing her shoulder and crossing her arms as she kept talking to Morgan. “We barely scrape by usually, it's pretty consistent even if we can only just barely make the expenses every month.” Morgan frowned at that.

“Only barely? Was it like that when I was here, too?” She said, concerned a little bit, but Annette gave a soft nod to that. “Same as it ever was.” Annette replied, grabbing an apple from a fruit basket sitting on a nearby table, taking a bite into it. Morgan sighed and sunk her head. “Look, I want to help. I'll give you half of my paychecks from Spectrum to help you pay the bills” Annette looked a little apprehensive and walked up to her, raising her hand slightly.

“I couldn't do that to you, Morgan. I don't want to take money from you to help this place running, that's your livelihood I'm cutting into.” Annette said with concern, Morgan shook her head and replied. “There was something I learned from living here for 12 years of my life. We take what we get for granted. What people usually need is not what they want, because the truth is, all they need is food, water, a place to rest and stay warm, and clean clothes on their backs. Spectrum has all of that, free of charge. Anything else I get isn't really a requirement. I'm offering this to you out of kindness, not out of spite.” 

Annette nodded again. “If you want to do that, then I can't stop you.” Morgan smiled again, and Annette Turned away to check behind a door. She saw some toddlers play with their toy blocks before closing the door quietly and looking back at the young raven haired adult. “Have you seen Nick recently?” She wondered, Morgan shrugged her shoulders at the question. “He apparently met some friends who got him a job, but he hasn't been answering my phone calls. It's been nearly 4 months now, and I still heard nothing.” Annette sighed and shook her head. “Well try and find him, tell him I sent my greetings.” 

Morgan lifted her head to nod, before noticing a door pop open, and a child's head poke out. The look on his face suddenly got excited, the dark brown haired kid running up and hugging around Morgan's waist tight, his cheek pressing against her stomach. “Morg!” He shouted, She chuckled and rubbed his head a couple of times to mess up his hair. “Hey Johnny.” She said with a smile. “You got taller in the past couple of months, didn't you?” He nodded a couple of times. “I'm 9 now!” He said with excitement, he let go of the hug and looked up at her, she bent down and grinned. “Well a happy birthday to you, then. I got you guys a bunch of food, but I'm sorry I couldn't get you a gift or anything.” He nods a bit. “It's okay!” He said with enthusiasm. 

Morgan stood back up. “Well don't you worry, I'll get you something when I come back next week, alright?” He nodded again when she said that, and she grinned a bit. “You know, I'm sorry to cut this short, Annette.” She started. “But I can't be away for too long before people start wondering where I left, so I'm going to head on back.” She smiled and walked up to give Morgan her own hug. “Take care of yourself, sweetie.” Annete said, Morgan quietly hugged back. “Of course I will.” She said, pulling out of the hug and turning back around to head outside the door.

She went down the stairs as the door closed behind her, she got back onto her scooter and rode quietly all the way back to the academy. She headed back inside the main dorm and headed up the stairs to their room once again. Robin was standing in front of it and gave a soft bow of her head. “Just a heads up, Morgan.” She said calmly. “Maria seems to be falling in and out of consciousness from her head injury. I suggest you stay quiet and try not to wake her up.” Morgan shrugged at that and gave a friendly chuckle. “She's a big girl, she can handle being woken up from nap time.” 

Morgan blinked some, before adding to that previous statement. “Well big in the age sense, she's pretty short.” Robin stepped out of the way of the door to let Morgan in, but she stayed still and looked up at her. 

“I have a question for you, Robin.” Morgan stated, folding her arms and leaning against the door frame. “Yes, Morgan?” She replied, reaching up to adjust the bun in her hair to be a little cleaner looking. “Don't take this the wrong way, but why did you join?” Morgan asked her, a look of curiosity on her face. Robins lips pursed and moved more to one side, tilting her head and pondering some. “You might need to rephrase that, what do you mean?” 

“Well... you're 22. I'm not calling you old or anything, but wouldn't you have figured out what you wanted to do with your life a couple of years before that? You're a freshman but you have nearly 4 years on me and 2 years on our instructor.” Morgan observed casually, Robin's face plastered with a somewhat unsure look on her face, placing one of her hands onto her hip and looking up at her. “To be honest, originally this wasn't what I wanted to do. But... My brother wanted to do this. I joined so I could keep a close eye on him.” Robin revealed, blinking a couple of times as they stood only a couple of feet apart, looking up at the much taller black haired girl. 

Morgan frowned a bit, she didn't expect that kind of answer from Robin. “Florence is pretty young, but didn't you trust his decisions at all? I'm pretty sure if he really wanted to do this then he would have been prepared for it.” Robin sighed, walking over to a nearby water fountain across the hall and taking a sip from it before turning back around to reply. “He's still not an adult, it's my responsibility to make sure nothing happens to him, since I'm really the only one here he knows.” 

Morgan shook her head, pinching between her brow with a look of irritation. “I think you're only just coddling him, how is he supposed to learn anything if you can't even let him do anything on his own?” Robin scoffed some at that, lifting her chin and lidding her eyes some. “I'll teach him anything this academy doesn't, I don't see what the problem is.” Morgan tilted an eyebrow at that. 

“That isn't what I mean, haven't you heard the proverb? 'Learning is hearing, knowing is watching, understanding is doing'? He's not going to understand any of this unless he does it himself.” Robin placed her hand onto Morgan's shoulder, her face cracking the veneer of calmness and looking just a bit upset. “I just want my only brother to not get killed, please don't tell me how to raise my own family. They aren't your problem.” Robin protested, her voice raised slightly from getting called out by Morgan.

Morgan lifted her hand, pushing Robin's off of her shoulder and furrowing her brow a little bit. “Suit yourself if you want to think that way. But for you, Robin? You need to come here for your own reason, not someone else's. If you don't come up with your own, you're just going to end up regretting everything you've done.” Morgan turned away, slowly walking down the hall as she spoke. “Spectrum is no place for regret, I hope you keep that in mind next time.” 

Robin sighed, opening the door and heading back to her dorm room to check on Maria. She was out of her school uniform and in a pair of night clothes, a simple black pair of pajama pants and a tank top. She was on her back, breathing deeply while she was out cold. Robin walked in and held the back of her hand to Maria's forehead. It was clammy and hot, as if she almost had a fever. Robin sighed some. “I should probably get her some food.” She exited out the door and began to walk back down the hall.

“My own reason...” She muttered to herself. 'What's the problem with not having a specific motivation for joining into a good cause?' She thought to herself, heading down the staircase slowly. 'Isn't me being on the front lines enough of a reason for me to be here? People are scared and they need every person they can to fight back against those monsters...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> At this point, I was starting to realize that only having one main character was under utilizing an entire cast of people, so I decided from this point to occasionally break perspective away from Maria. In act 2, I'm planning on doing this a bit more often.


	5. Delirium

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria, thanks to the accident she had nearly 3 years ago finds out that the side effects of it cause her to meet a very special friend. After losing her mind, she tries to prepare for an upcoming test.

Maria woke up in her bedroom, groaning as she rubbed her eyes from the bright orange hue of the morning sun. She slid out of bed and quickly remade the covers so they would look somewhat neat. She took a moment, sitting on the edge of it and looking around a little bit. Her room was a very soft shade of blue. Her desk and dresser were both made of the same cherry wood, a small computer set up with her chair tucked underneath. Her dresser had pictures resting ontop of it showing her, her sister Sienna, their father Michael, and her mother Lorrie. Her mother, along with her and her siblings all had the same dark red shade of hair, while their father had more of a black color to his. She smiled some, walking up to the dresser, pulling back a drawer and grabbing some clothed to get changed. 

She folded up her pajamas, setting them into a clothes hamper to put in the washing machine for later, and then walked over to a mirror. She was wearing her usual at home outfit, a long sleeved navy blue shirt and black jeans. Her hair was straight, long and red, going all the way down to her shoulders, a bang covering some of her face and leaving her lone blue eye peeking out along with a bit of her forehead. 

She gently grabbed the frame of the mirror, gently leaning into it and staring at her face. She was called pretty fairly often, but she felt like that was a normal thing to say when people talk to a teenage girl. Self esteem seems to be so important for people her age, but she kind of didn't really care. She doesn't really like to act like a girl, or a boy. She just always liked to act like herself and never felt like she had to change for anybody, if they didn't like her, she would just move on. 

She kept looking into the mirror, and she suddenly noticed for a brief moment, her uncovered eye began to flash red. She jerked back from the surprise, before looking out of morbid curiosity... They were back to just being blue. Blue like they've always been, blue like they always will be. She shook her head a couple of times, quickly dismissing that from her memory as she walked over to the light switch, turning her ceiling fan on, she always did this when she woke up. The air had a bad habit of getting stagnant on her, and the fan was probably her best solution. 

She huffed her shoulders and looked up, smiling a bit as the fan slowly twirled overhead, the airflow to cause her hair slowly sway in the breeze. She looked down at the pictures on her desk, and quirked an eyebrow. She leaned in once again to inspect them, she noticed something was wrong. She grabbed onto one of the picture frames and inspected it. It was just her and Sienna standing together, her mom and her dad were both missing. 

She tilted her head, pacing in circles around the room and staring at the wooden picture frame. She stood once again in front of the mirror, but then noticed something once again. Her hand felt hot... not warm, but nearly burning hot. She looked down, the picture had ignited, ashes of it flying into the air and fading into the ether. She dropped it and lurched back, letting out a shriek. But when she shrieked, she had no voice. It was nothing but silence, she gently held her hand to her chest, squeezing it tight to help soothe the pain. She accidentally glanced back at the mirror and realized that things have changed once again. 

The image staring back into her in the mirror was different. She looked taller, her skin was sickly pale and she had dark rings under her eyes. Her hair was cut much shorter, and looked somewhat ragged. Her eyes were crimson, a shade of vivid red like pools full of blood. She rubbed her eyes, but the image stayed the same, glaring back at her unforgivably no matter how she moved, her reflection stayed still and just... peered.

She looked around her solemn reflection, her sky blue room had charred wall paper, broken glass, everything looked seared and destroyed around her. She cringed some as she noticed her reflection was beginning to burn away as well, her body slowly being turned into ashes in the breeze, flowing into the open window and turning into nothingness. 

The morning sun began to fade, the sunlight turned an eerie brown color, getting nearly as dark as night as it struggled to pierce the clouds, the room slowly looked less and less welcome, she slowly walked back to her bed and noticed that the sheets were burning away. She gasped and turned around. Everything in her room was doing the same thing, burning into soot and ash. She felt a soreness in her back like being branded, the searing ache across her entire back and shoulders nearly crippled her, causing to fall onto her face before crawling to the door. 

When the door swung open, she just realized where she was. This was the day her parents died and her life was changed forever. The hallway was full of smoke clogging the upper half of air, the kitchen was once again collapsed, But the door to her fathers room was missing. Fire was licking the sides of it, but it looked like she could walk through. 

She tried to call out to her dad, to see if he was there, but once again her voice fell on only silence. She tried again, shouting her heart out and once again there was nothing. Her voice just didn't seem to exist. She closed her eyes, hoping none of this was real... but then she realized.

The air was clogged and ashy, the smoke she inhaled through her nose burned its way down and seared her lungs like she was inhaling powered glass. The heat of the flames were warm on her face, not a cozy warm, but an uncomfortable warm... It hurt to feel it. She opened her eyes to find herself in the exact same place, staring at the gaping flaming door frame in the shambles of her old house. 

She inhaled and broke out into a run, dashing along the hallway and making a deft leap through the flames before landing on her shoulder, rolling back onto her feet. She turned around, and noticed that the flaming door that still showed her home was still there, but she was surrounded by darkness. Up above, below, to each side was darkness as far as the eye can see. Her footsteps echoed hundreds of times as she walked, but when she leaned down to slide her hand on the ground, it felt smooth like glass. 

She looked around, rubbing her face to get rid of some of the soot, wondering if there was a single feature in this black void where her father and mothers room used to be. The frame of the doorway grew smaller and smaller with each step, almost like a portrait of destruction that slowly faded from view. She kept going, walking backwards to watch it grow smaller and smaller, until it slowly faded from existence as well, leaving nothing but black. The only thing she could see was her hands out in front of her. 

She heard a faint whisper, so faint that she could barely hear it over the sound of her own heart beating, she looked up to see where it came from.. but the void stayed the same as it was, until she noticed a small orange speck in the distance. It wasn't the flaming door, that was the way she came from. This was in the completely opposite direction. She began to wander towards it, the pain in her back was surging, feeling like it was heating up. It was excruciating, but she forced herself to continue, slowly hobbling toward the light.

 

The light began to slowly grow and fill her peripheral vision, getting brighter and brighter, the muffled whispers still unintelligible in her ear. She broke out into a run, she was straining to continue but pushed on anyway with perseverance, not caring about the pain anymore as the light grew. The soft orange glow heating up her face more and most as she ran.

Once she got close enough, she realized that what she was looking at in the black void was a phoenix. It screeched and began to fill the black sky with fire. Slowly covering all she could see with a fire so bright that she had to turn her head away. “It is almost over...” A calm, male but somewhat feminine voice echoed overhead. 

It screeched again. “Close your eyes for one moment, and the pain will end.” It declared, Maria gasped as her heart began to race, falling onto her back and staring up at it with a panicked look on her face, her red eyes sharply glaring up at it. She couldn't mistake what she was looking at. She gulped and stood up, ready to scream at it, but once again her voice was mute. Tears began to roll down her cheeks and well up, making her eyes sting from the mixture of the tears and heat. She silently shouted again, pointing a hand at it. 

“Only more moment until the hurting stops...” It said, and Maria's hand ignited into flame. She felt every moment of it as pain surged into her hand and up her body, her entire body slowly igniting and bursting into fire. Heat nearly melting her flesh as she panicked, spinning around and tripping once again when she tried to break out into a run. Her body slowly whittling away to ash in the stagnant air as she ran, it consuming her more and more, shouting quietly once last time before fading into nothing.

Maria quickly gasped for air, shouting a blood curdling scream into the air as she awoke, quickly rolling to one side to try and dash away before falling out of the top bunk of the bed. She fell briefly, her body smashing into the hardwood floor with a dull thud. She scratched at the ground, throwing away her blankets and standing up. Currently clad in her black pajama pants and a loose shirt. She looked around the room and realized she was back in her dorm. She raised her hands and slowly placed them on her throat, she was afraid to talk, but forced herself through it with a gulp.

“I...I-I-....G-Gah..” She coughed loudly, collapsing back onto her knees and planting her hands into the floor. She felt so weak, sick and afraid. “What the hell was that...?” She quietly asked herself, feeling her hands and legs shaking as she stood back up, stumbling over and leaning against the wall to recollect herself. 

“The dream hurt you, didn't it?” The male voice spoke to her, it's feminine voice slightly echoing, but it didn't really seem like it was in the same room, from the way it reverberated. She looked up, her eyes looking around the room and seeing nothing. “W-who said that..?” She said, nervously as her eyes darted around the room, running over to her dresser and searching around hastily. “It was I, Right here.” A small red phoenix floated down and perched itself on the dresser. It looked translucent and glowing, its large eyes glowing a blank orange color. It looked as small as a parakeet, except.. well it was a phoenix.

It stepped a little closer, chirped and looked up at her. Maria's fear turned into focused anger, her eyes glaring and piercing right through the little bird. “Is this a joke?” She said, her voice showing a calm dismay. The small phoenix tilted his head at that. “What's a joke?” He wondered, Maria leaned down, narrowing her eyes. “You. What the hell are you?” The phoenix looked down at the ground, sighing some, his voice sounding like it was transcending sound and entering the center of her head.

“I've been... with you for a while now, but this was the first time we spoke. Unfortunately... As soon as you give it some thought, you'll know who I really am.” He said, his voice showing some signs of sorrow.

Maria lifted a brow, before quickly clawing so hard into the dresser that her fingernails dug into it. “No way...” She exclaimed, not believing it. He nodded his head some, chirping again. “You're the one who did it...” She growled some, tears rolling down her cheeks once again as she glared daggers at him. “Yes, I ended up killing your parents. It honestly was a huge mistake, it was like I couldn't control myself...” He calmly stated, backing up a step. 

Maria suddenly broke into a loud shout. “WHY? WHY DID YOU DO IT!?” She shouted, her hands trembling some as she pressed into the table, the muscles in her arms and shoulders tensing a bit as the hairs on the back of her neck stood up, she felt like she was going to boil over with fury. “I can't explain, I don't really know why anymore... Ever since they destroyed my body, I can only remember what you know in your head, since I was connected with you. I'm very sorry, Maria.” He continued, trying to gauge her reaction. 

“The real reason is lost in history, unfortunately. But now we're together, we should make the best o-” Maria cut him off, grabbing the whole dressed and pushing it onto it's side with a heavy smash. The clothes fell out of it onto the floor below, the phoenix unaffected as it seemed to just flap and slowly float. “That... isn't good enough of an answer.” Maria hissed at him. Her breathing was heavy, and her fists were clenched so tight her nails were cutting into her skin. 

“But it's the only answer we have, I'm so sorry for everything that's happened to you because of me.” He tried to diffuse her by just being honest, but she just reached out to try and swing at him, her hand passed right through his body like it didn't exist. She growled again, storming to her closet and grabbing her weapon bag. Undoing the zipper and quickly putting her pole arm together. 

“SHUT UP.” Maria roared at the phoenix, pointing her spear tip at him. “Please, Mari-” He got cut off when Maria quickly swung her glaive at him, he quickly flapped up and it missed, slicing a diagonal cut through the blue window blinds and ruining them. She stabbed again, smashing the end of the blade into a wall before cutting toward him, him quickly flying away once again.

“NOTHING YOU SAY WILL EVER FIX THIS.” She shouted, dashing at another wall and smashing the mirror and pictures off of the wall, he landed on another dresser and she just smashed her glaive into it as well. She threw the other dresser into the ground, before turning around and seeing him on a recliner chair that was brought in, she ran at it and began to stab at it a couple more times, shouting manically at him. The spear shots just went through him like they didn't exist. 

“This isn't going to work, and you know it, You're just making a mess.” He scolded quietly. Maria shouted again, stabbing through the couch this time. “JUST DIE ALREADY!” she shouted louder, before suddenly the door pulled open.

Robin stared at Maria, toteing a spear in her hands, all the furniture was either knocked over or destroyed, holes were put in the walls, nothing wasn't knocked over and Maria was just glaring at an empty couch with these searing red eyes of hate she's never saw before. Her jaw dropped in shock, the bag of food she went to get Maria since it's been a couple of days since she fell asleep, the food dropping onto the floor quietly. “What happened?” She quietly asked, slightly fearful as to what Maria might respond with. 

Maria just shouted at her, her voice panicking with the shaking of her hands like she couldn't handle her own rage. “H-he's right there! He killed them! He killed my family!” She shrieked, pointing at the chair she was stabbing, Robin looking where she pointed and there was nothing but a destroyed chair. 

“There's nothing there, Maria.” Robin replied with confusion, but instantly Maria just screamed at her, running up and grabbing the collar of her shirt. “You're lying to me! You see it, don't you!?” She shouted the questions at her, still trembling from being sent into an absolute fury. “She's right, Maria” The bird said, flying up to perch on the livid girls shoulder. “No one can see or hear me except you, its because of the burns I gave you.” 

She began to break down, sputtering and panting under her breath while more tears began to surge down her face. She pushed Robin back and dashed down the hall. “Leave me alone!” She shouted, heading downstairs and running outside. She dashed to the closest trashcan and collapsed to her legs, she lifted her head up as something welled in her stomach, before violently vomiting into the trashcan once or twice, dropping to the sidewalk beside it as the bird slowly floated down to land beside her. “You can't keep doing that, the sudden change in emotions is too much for your body to handle.” He said, showing some concern.

“Shut up..” Maria barked between her panting breaths, she felt sick and didn't feel like standing back up. A male voice suddenly shouted at her just across the courtyard, Maria glanced up and noticed it was the member of her sister team, Jonah Delaney. He ran over beside her and looked down at the lone girl. “I saw you blow chunks in that trash can, are you sick or something?” He said, reaching down to grab her by the arm, hoping to lift her up. She was pulled back onto her feet, but quickly stumbled once again and fell back onto her butt.

“Yep, Sick.” He commented with a light chuckle. “You know, I used to get sick all the time during car rides when I was a little younger.” He rubbed his shoulder some, giving a reassuring smile to Maria. Maria cocked her head to one side, raising a brow. “Jonah, is this about anything that matters?”

“Well...” Jonah trailed on, standing her up and walking with her along the courtyard. Her panic slowly faded but it seemed like she was just annoyed or frustrated. “I wanted to tell your dorm that Sienna and Ashley decided to start the exam today.” Maria rolled her eyes and sighed at that. “This is totally the best day for it, I guess.” She said sarcastically, yawning and walking with him along the sidewalk. 

“I can tell that's sarcasm. So... can you tell me why you were throwing up?” She looked at the ground underneath her, sighing as she tried to think of an excuse. “I got kind of sick, haven't been holding anything down.” The phoenix appeared and landed on Maria's shoulder, but since she didn't feel it, she couldn't notice. “Please don't lie to people.” Maria quietly thought 'Like anyone would believe me if I told them the truth.' to herself, looking up at him, her hands were still shaking, he looked down and grabbed her hand, stopping her and lifting it up. 

“You're shivering, also... your hands feel really cold. Have you held down any food or water the past few days?” He wondered, Maria wriggled her hands, yanking them away from him with a nonplussed look on her face. “No, and don't grab my hands again without asking.” she reprimanded him, shaking her head and walking ahead of him. “S-sorry, Maria!” She kept walking off, not turning around as he quietly stood awkwardly in the middle of the sidewalk. “Get some food! You'll feel better.” He said, somewhat shouting. 

 

Maria barked back. “Fine! Whatever!” She said, turning a corner and heading to the cafeteria by herself. The cafeteria was pretty big, but it kind of reminded her of a much larger version of her own school. There was a place to buy food, a place to sit and eat, and vending machines lining each side. She sighed and pulled out her wallet, pulling it open and inspecting it to realize that she STILL had no money. Lunch didn't seem like it was going to be an option. 

 

She looked around the lunchroom, hundreds of teens and adults dressed in the school uniform were eating, chatting, having a good time. Some were bullying or making fun of others, and some just quietly ate lunch by their selves. More to the sides of the room, the benches emptied out to near nothing, Maria walked over to an empty bench to sit alone, slouching forward and laying her chin into her hand as she closed her eyes. 

“If you're still tired, you should sleep” The bird softly spoke. Maria mumbled quietly in response. “I can rest my eyes wherever I want, you're the one who gave me the nightmares.” The bird gave a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, I kind of did that wrong... sorry.” She lifted one eye, him walking around slowly on the lunch table in front of her. She closed her eye once again and gave a yawn. “So do I have to talk so you can hear me? Or do you read my thoughts too.” She said, he chirped and responded. “Hey, something out of you that isn't telling me to shut up, awesome.” He said jokingly before answering some, flying up and perching on her head. “The scars on your back had my magic, I'm part of your body, not your mind. So you have to actually talk for me to hear anything.” Maria replied to that almost instantly. 

“Hey, bird?” She asked, the bird looked down at her. “Yes?” He asked, Maria slumped into her hand even lower, her arm the only thing holding her hand up. “Shut up.” The bird sighed, curling up and resting in her hair as Maria began to drift off for a short nap in her seat. Her eyes grew heavy as a gentle voice spoke up and broke her drowsiness. 

“May I sit here?” She asked, Maria opened her eyes and sat back up. The girl was wearing a dark red school uniform with a white blouse underneath of it, a blue bow tied around her neck. Her skin was fair, her hair was the whitest hair Maria had ever seen, longer than her shoulders and having several blue ribbons tying around certain strands to pull them into a small braid. Her eyes were a vivid pink color and looked nothing like anything she's seen before. 

Her features seemed pretty standard, her skin was pretty smooth and well kept along with her hair, her head had a more oval shape to Maria's, but they were the same height. Maria could guess she was a little older since she just didn't have that look to her. “Go ahead.” Maria said flatly, the girl smiled and sat down on the other side of the bench with a smile. “Thank you, miss. Do you sit here often?” Maria looked up, shaking her head and watching her as she pulled out a sandwich from the bag. “No, I don't” Maria answered, still somewhat drowsy, but still able to hold a conversation.

“Do you?” Maria asked, and the white haired girl nodded some. “Yeah, this is where I always eat lunch, people don't really enjoy eating with me.” Maria shrugged a bit, leaning back and scratching though her hair with one hand. “Any reason why?” She asked, with a hint of curiosity. The girl looked to the floor, shaking her head gently. “I was born here, and raised here. My parents were immigrants. People don't really enjoy my kind being here after the war 20 years ago, even if I call this my one and only home.” She answered, this caused Maria to raise a brow, rubbing her own cheek with her hand and crossing her arms on the table. “Weird, The crossing restriction only got lifted 10 years ago.” 

The girl nodded, the crossing restriction was placed after the war ended to not raise political tensions, pretty much locking anyone from going to another continent to avoid any misunderstandings or reasons for the war to break out again. The law was lifted after a decision, but people barely cross the waters anymore. “We moved here just before that, in hopes of finding a new life.” Maria nodded at her response, blinking a couple of times. “And how did that go?” Maria wondered, scratching her shoulder. She sighed and looked up at the ceiling, it must've been a soft spot for her, Maria quietly thought to herself from her reaction. 

“Father abandoned us, and mother died giving birth to me. I was raised by an orphanage instead.” Maria nodded a little bit, her being from Astra explained her odd coloring, since the Astrian natives tended to have white hair and red or pink eyes. “Thus why my name is Cassandra, and not something like Revesia, like my mother was.” She leaned back and sighed, crossing her arms. “Nothing about me, what about you? Where are your parents.” Maria looked at a wall when she asked that, before looking back at her. “They died three years ago when a monster attacked our home.” Cassandra's face turned somber, reaching up and gently rubbing onto her shoulder. “I'm really sorry, Miss.” Maria grabbed her hand, gently pulling it off of her and looking up at her with a sharp gaze. 

“Don't feel sorry for me, it's in the past.” Cassandra pulled her hand away from Maria with a nod, leaning back against and continuing to eat her food. “To be honest, I'm surprised.” Cassandra observed, giving a friendly smile to her. “You're the first person in my school besides my instructor who wants to talk to me. Everyone else just slings insults at me.. sometimes they even beat me up.” Maria frowned at that and sighed. “I don't judge people until I know them.” Maria quietly answered. 

Cassandra nodded with a smile. “That's a good trait to have, you know... Means you're easy to be friends with.” Maria chuckled at that, patting the table firmly to make a thud. “Hell no, I'm not likable. I'm a fucking jerk with emotional problems.” Maria replied. “If you think I'm a nice person, you're sorely mistaken.” Maria warned, but Cassandra shook her head. “Yet you gave me more of a chance than other students, that has to add up to something.” Maria glared up at her with her deep red eyes and sighed. “...Why do you not have any food? This is the cafeteria you know..” Cassandra broke the brief silence with her question. 

“I have no money.” Maria said, somewhat annoyed by that fact still. Cassandra quietly pondered before reaching in and placing a second sandwich in front of her. “You can have mind, hope you're not allergic to ham or anything.” She looked down, unwrapping the plastic, her hands still gently shivering as she lifted it up. “Thanks, I guess.” Maria replied, biting into it. It was okay for a sandwich, it was kind of hard to screw up a sandwich unless you replaced the mayonnaise with toothpaste or something equally stupid.

She quickly finished the sandwich, cleaning up any leftover crumbs and quickly getting out of her chair, turning around and getting ready to quietly leave. “Oh, are you in a hurry?” Maria put her hands in the pockets of her pajamas, turning around to look back at her. “Yeah, I have my entrance exams soon.” Cassandra nodded. “Those are pretty hard when you're new; By the way, can I ask you two things?”

Maria shrugged her shoulders. “Go ahead.” She said, stretching her arms a bit. 

“What's your name?” Cassandra asked.

“Maria.” Maria replied, looking back at her with a hand resting on her hip. “What was the other thing?”  
“Will you... eat lunch with me again when you come back?” Cassandra asked of her, Maria looked confused and cocked her brow, her head tilting some as she looked back. “Why?” Cassandra blushed a bit and looked at the floor. “Well... I just like having someone to talk to.” Maria gave a light chuckle and turned around, walking away as she replied. “I'll try, but no promises.” She answered back, Cassandra looked around a little bit before tucking her arms closer, giving a very quiet sounding “Yay,”. As the doors swung shut to the lunch room.

The bird reappeared on Maria's shoulder. “Hey, I think that was the most I've ever seen you socialize! Good job, sweety.” Maria stopped, and glared at him. “Two things, bird. Never call me sweetie again unless you want me to rip your throat out... And I still hate you for everything you've caused me.” 

The bird sighed, looking down from feeling suddenly depressed. “I know, just... trying to lighten up the mood.” He commented, fading back into the ether.

“Whatever you call it, bird.” She said, walking back to the front of the dorm and seeing Jonah sitting on one of the stairs of the staircase that led up to the dormitory. Jonah looked up, running over to her and standing in front of her.

“You finished?” He asked, she just nodded. His face looked a bit upset Maria noticed, crossing her arms and tilting her head. “What is it?” She inquired, he rubbed the back of his head and chuckled awkwardly. “Uhhh... Robin told me what happened, Are you feeling okay?” Maria growled in frustration and began to walk away, Jonah breaking into a brisk jog to follow her. “I'm not going to talk about it.” She stated flatly, a scowl on her face. “That's fine too...” He said, trailing off with a hint of concern still in his voice. 

“Take me to where the exam is happening” Maria demanded, her voice still monotone. He quickly put on a smile, jogging faster. “Got it! Just follow me.” He said, jogging fast enough to get ahead of Maria, then walking together where the exam was going to begin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the things I don't like to do is I don't like writing a mary sue or a self insert of any kind, giving Maria a "Special power" does kind of sound Mary sueish, but I want to see if giving her something strange that isn't actually beneficial in any way can help her build some more character.


	6. The Porcelain Facade

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Sienna reveals their mission to actually be placed in the active mission roster, they quickly form pairs of two to journey out. Due to miscommunications, two people who don't really enjoy each others company; Lily and Morgan are now paired together. They quickly learn they don't share the same opinions.

Lily climbed up the hill just behind the school, reaching the top and seeing her teammates standing around and conversing together as the morning sun shined it's brilliant glow. Jonah sat by himself, Robin was speaking to her little brother, Florence. Morgan was adjusting her blue bandanna around her forehead, wrapping it on her hair to keep her long hair from getting into her eyes. Maria was laying in the grass somewhat asleep, Sienna and Ashley were talking besides a couple of backpacks laying on the ground. Erika was quietly speaking to Gabriel, who was trying to make a whistle out of a blade of grass. 

“I'm here, everyone.” Lily stated with a smile, surprised that she was the late one. Ashley grinned at her, adjusting her eye patch and lifting one of the backpacks on the ground and tossing it her way. “Glad you made it, take this.” Lily nodded and lifted up the backpack, it seemed study and made of a durable olive colored canvas. This was less of a school backpack and more of the rugged survivalist type. 

“Everyone, line up!” She said, everyone slowly broke their attention away from what they were doing, walking in front of the two female instructors and standing shoulder to shoulder. Ashley and Sienna began to grab the other three bags and tossed them at the feet of the entire group. “These are essential for what's going to come up next.” Ashley said, her voice stern but informative. “I'll allow my co-instructor, Sienna Roth explain what's going to happen next.” She said, backing up one step and letting Sienna have the floor.

“Every member of this class has taken part in a couple of fights between each other to test and gauge your strengths and weaknesses.” Sienna started, pacing slowly back and fourth through the entire group of students. “But that isn't all that's required to be a functioning member of Spectrum Academy,” She continued, stopping and turning on her heel, placing her hands in front of her and looking up at the whole group. “The second half of what you need is actually two things. Adaptability and teamwork, these are essential in forming a proper team as communication and decision making are what wins fights on the battlefield, not just combat skill alone.” Seinna continued, peering from left to right with her sharp eyes.

Ashley nodded, stepping up as Sienna gestured to her, her voice was deeper and had a sense of commanding to it as she spoke. “Many people sign up for Spectrum in hopes to help, or get recognition or fame, some people even sign up because they hear we pay them. Those people aren't welcome here, we need warriors, we need fighters. We need people not afraid to put their lives on the line to defend the people of this world every single day they're capable of doing so. This test is designed to weed those with selfish ambitions and foolish goals out of our system.” She added, pointing to the floor and gesturing with her finger. “Open the bags at your feet.”

All of the students looked down at the bags, some of them reaching down to undo the buttons and pull it open. “In each of these bags are several things. Two sleeping bags, a map, two thermoses, A first aid kit, and two vitality trackers. The vitality trackers will go on each student's arm. It's a combination heart rate monitor and GPS device designed to let us know if you ever happen to become injured or in grave danger. It was also designed to keep track of your hunger, thirst and sickness levels thanks to very slight changes in your skin.” She explained, each of the students attaching it to their arm while the instructors spoke. Lily adjusted the straps on hers to make sure it was snug, but not overly tight. She unfolded the map to take a quick glance at it.

“Your mission is to take you and one partner of your choice through the Elmsworth Forest to the north to retrieve one of four trophies hidden in an underground temple at the base of Mt. Firewind we've called the Pradgarth Depths.” Maria quickly asked, putting on her own armband, before undoing her tie around her neck. “Like... Relics in the temple?” Sienna shook her head and raised her arm to point at her. “Nope, we put the trophies there specifically for you to take them.” Maria rolled her eyes and shrugged, putting her arm on her hip and leaning to one side. “Well that makes it more boring.” She quipped, but Ashley quickly corrected her. “Actually, it's quite treacherous. It's a 59 mile hike over forests full of wild animals, steep hills, rivers and a pretty dangerous temple that might possibly have creatures dwelling within it. With the rift wide open like it is, an attack can happen at any time and we need you on your toes.” Ashley lectured Maria, tapping her foot and shaking her head as Maria just shrugged her shoulders.

Sienna continued for Ashley as Lily zipped up her backpack, pulling it over one shoulder. “You have 72 hours to get to that temple and retrieve one of the trophies. If your vital tracker shows signs of you being injured or ill or if time runs out; You will be extracted quickly via Helicopter, you will not be promoted, and you will be placed in our basic training program unless your teammate succeeds.” Lily raised her hand to ask a question. “What's that?” She asked simply, Sienna began to pace the eight students, looking up and down at them. “It's pretty much standard basic training, but you will not be sent to any missions and you will have to forfeit your weapon until you are ready to take this test again, that time is a minimum of 6 months so do not take this lightly.”

She placed a hand on Lily's shoulder and smiles at her, Lily smiling back as she nodded and went back to pacing the group. “You can choose your own partner, if you find anyone else while in the forest, you're free to travel with them. But getting the trophy is a guaranteed pass for both you and your partner, even if one has been extracted.” Ashley stepped aside and began to walk over to a nearby chair as Sienna finished, as she began to talk in her place. “Once you're done finding your partner, we will send each of you out at random intervals, your countdown starts when YOU start, not when anyone else does. Keep that in mind as you find your partner.” She said, finally going quiet as the group began to talk to each other.

“So... We have to pick a partner of our choice...” Erika said to Lily, looking around as people began to group up already. Florence quickly ran to his older, yet somewhat shorter sister, but that was a given, Morgan just crossed her arms and waited as the people began to thin out. She looked over a shoulder and noticed Maria was quietly speaking to Jonah just behind Erika's shoulder. “Did you think of who you wanted to be with?” The ginger haired girl asked, her voice somewhat quiet from being so timid around a big group. Lily shook her head, her brow furrowing a little bit. “To be honest, I'll just pick whoever doesn't get picked. I feel like we'll most likely turn into one big group anyways.” Erika nodded and looked over to see Gabriel approaching them both. “Hey there, Missies!” Gabriel said with a bright smile on his face, pulling out a hairband and pulling his long chestnut red colored hair into a loose ponytail.

“Hey there, Gabe.” Erika said with a smile, Gabriel waved happily at them both and stopped in front of the. “Hey Erika, hey Blondie.” Lily blinked a couple of times before speaking up. “My name is Lily, you know.” She said, clarifying.

“Oh, I forgot. My bad!” Gabriel apologized, bowing his head and rubbing the back of his head. “It's kind of a coin flip when I forget stuff like that.” Lily huffed quietly at that. “Obviously.” She said flatly, tilting her head and addressing him proper. “Well, did you want to ask us something?” Erika spoke up, looking at him.  
Gabriel began to fiddle around with his whip, currently curled up on his belt and a bit tangled, clearly you don't want a tangled whip when you have to pull it out to use later or it'll be absolutely useless. It was almost like he picked an impractical weapon. “Well, I wanted to ask Erika if she wanted to be on my team.” Erika looked at him and smiled. “Sure thing, Gabriel!” Gabriel grinned at that, hugging her tightly and lifting her off the ground. “Awesome! We're gonna get this done in like 4 hours!” Erika chuckled, before dropping back down onto the ground.

“That's a bit... Overzealous.” Lily commented, Gabriel just stuck her tongue out at her for a bit. “Well, Gabe and I need to get ready, good luck in finding your partner, Lily!” Erika said, walking off as they both went to sit down on the grassy hill, either discussing strategy or comic books, she had no idea about which one from how far away they were. Maria seemed to finally pick Jonah as her partner, probably because she didn't want to speak about her going bonkers and messing up the room earlier today to anybody who she happened to live with. 

She looked around and smiled at the three teams, before looking over to see Morgan leaning against a nearby pine tree, watching the pines sway in the gentle summer winds. Lily swallowed her pride, She didn't like Morgan, but she would tolerate it until they find Maria or someone else in the forest. It wasn't going to go too wrong, was it?

She began to approach Morgan, opening her mouth to speak, but Morgan quickly cut her off. “So, you did the same 'wait and see' strategy that I did, huh?” She asked, Lily nodded gently and crossed her arms, leaning away from her. “Y-yeah... I felt like we'll find other people quickly.” Morgan nodded at that, standing up and walking right past her, not even looking at her as she spoke. “Let's just hurry up and find other people when we go, okay? I want this to be brief.” Lily looked at the ground and sighed some. “Fine, I guess.” She replied, walking just behind Morgan and standing shoulder to shoulder as everyone else lined up. 

“Alright!” Ashley said, standing up and clapping her hands together once. She strolled over to the front of everyone and rolled back the sleeve of her white jacket. “Welp, Looks like now is a good time to start, We've done enough talking.” She said, pointing to Morgan and Lily. “You two go first, the next pair go in 15 minutes.” They both nodded, but Morgan just started to walk down the hill almost at nearly the next moment. “Just follow me and keep quiet.” She said, bemoaned. arms behind her head as she gave a stretch. Lily just double checked her scimitar. Just to make sure it was still in there snugly, which it was.

They began to walk through the forest, it was oddly quiet between the two of them, nearly no words were spoken and all Lily heard was the cracking of small pine needles and branches underneath her feet. The trees slowly thickened as they headed into the forest, it didn't seem like there were any trails or pathways cut through anywhere, but there was a clearing she could walk through. Lily guessed that it could have been a deer herd all traveling the same routes. 

The sky slowly got covered by the canopy of trees, as the forest grew more varied, the only light that would occasionally break through was enough to give shadows with the shape of leaves filling the rest of the residual light. There was occasionally an animal to look at, or a thicket they had to walk past. She assumed as they headed farther away from civilization the paths would get more and more rough and unsteady. 

“So... How about that inheritance?” Morgan commented out of nowhere. Lily's suddenly turned her head to look at her, furrowing her brow once again.  
“Excuse me, what?” Lily asked, perplexed by what she meant. “Your fathers inheritance details hit the news a year ago.” Lily shrugged some and turned away to keep walking. “I'm not sure that's anything important, Let's keep going.” She said, but Morgan gripped her shoulder firmly enough to convince her to stop. “For me, it is.” Morgan replied, slightly perturbed by Lily trying to brush her off. Lily sighed and turned to her as she still felt confused. “What do you mean?”

“Your father has a trillion Geld empire on his hands and a complete monopoly on the Ash weapons market, shutting down other sellers by calling their goods 'Illegal' for not being sponsored by the military and Spectrum like he is. His inheritance involves pretty much pumping all of his money into two things, the military force and YOU. You're getting 50% of that wealth when he dies the government isn't going to tax any of it because they're in his pocket and benefit from him.” Morgan clarified, both of them stopped walking and turned to face each other. “Where did you learn that?” Lily asked, feeling unsure about what Morgan might do next.

“We're talking about one of the biggest money transactions in history, Lily. It was covered by the news as soon as the details were leaked.” Morgan shook her head, pointing a finger at Lily as she spoke. “But that isn't what I care about. I care about WHO and WHERE it's going to.” Lily frowned at that, crossing her arms and looking at the ground. “You and your father have all this money, but all you do is fucking sit on it or use it to strengthen the military and Spectrum. People in destroyed neighborhoods could USE that money... But your family just sat on it and we had to wait until the SYNDICATE actually helped fund the rebuild.” Lily scoffed, a look of agitation forming on your face. 

“YOU took money from the Syndicate!? They murder people and sell drugs! They steal from my fathers weapon shipments by pepper spraying the driver and then raiding the whole damn thing, they even kill the witnesses. People took money from them to help rebuild the houses?” Lily asserted, leaning forward to yell at the raven haired woman. Morgan glared down at her and laughed mockingly. “They still responded faster than you or your father did.” Lily gritted her teeth and shouted back at Morgan as she walked away. “I didn't know people were that desperate, I would have helped them if I did.”

Morgan stopped and began to laugh at that, looking back at her and shaking her head some, not believing this girl. “But you didn't. You sat there and pretended like you were blind to the whole damn thing. Intention isn't action, Kiddo.” She remarked, Lily looking even more frustrated. Lily raised her voice, barking back at her. “What do you mean by that!? I would have helped if I knew how.” Morgan growled, turning around and pointing firmly against her chest hard enough for it to sting. “You don't ever fucking help ANYBODY.” Morgan started, looking straight pissed off now. “You sit there and twiddle your thumbs and hope for the best, or completely ignore the problem altogether. You have the potential to actually help these people, yet you do NOTHING.” Morgan exclaimed, pointing at her chest again to make her feel uncomfortable, backing up one step as she talked.

“You're just a trust fund baby. You don't have to work for ANYTHING to get a good life, it just fell into your lap because your dad capitalized on a tragedy to make a profit.” Lily clenches her fists from that, but refused to say anything to that. “And all you do is procrastinate on it, you were probably raised by him so to be honest, as soon as he's croaked you're just going to be the exact same as he is.” Lily growled and began to walk away, deeper into the woods. “That's enough out of you, let's just find the damn temple.” She said, her voice trying to hide how irate she was.

“Hell, you already did that to Maria, didn't you?” Morgan asked, Lily's jaw dropped and she looked back at her.  
“Don't involve Maria in this, please.” Lily quietly demanded, but Morgan shook her head and began to walk back up to her. “No, because Maria is a walking example of your ignorance.” Morgan started, her voice had a certain smugness to it. “Maria was your FRIEND. Her parents were killed and she got put in the hospital, and now she's crazy and smashed up our dorm just 4 days after sending HERSELF to the infirmary. Do you know what would have probably made her much more sane?” Morgan asked, Lily looked at the forest floor again as she talked. “IF HER FRIEND SHOWED UP TO SUPPORT HER!” Morgan proclaimed, Lily just bit her lower lip, not even looking at her. 

“You couldn't even do that for her, you failure.” Morgan said scathingly, Lily began to cry just a bit as she talked, turning around and walking away. “Wow, you don't even have a response, you coward.” Lily stomped her foot, turning around and roaring at her. “SHUT UP!” Morgan quietly walked up and spat right in her face. Lily began to shake, before shouting and lunging toward her, smashing her elbow into Morgans face, sending her backwards and having them both smack into a nearby tree before spilling to the ground. 

“Shut your damn mouth!” Lily said, punching Morgan, who was still quite shaken right in the face. “You know absolutely nothing about me!” She said, speaking between each punch. “I had NO FRIENDS except for Maria! I was ridiculed and insulted every single day! My father barely even fucking spoke to me! I was ALWAYS alone ever since mother took my sister with her!” She said, decking Morgan just repeatedly, blood starting to come from Morgan's nose and mouth. “I grew up pampered but in the end no one would have given a shit if I wasn't his daughter. My only friend growing up was Maria because everyone else would beat me up and insult me!” She explained, grabbing Morgan by the tie and smashing her head into Morgans, making her dizzy for a second. 

“I didn't see Maria because I didn't want to see her die. She was in critical condition and was poisoned by Ash, I didn't want to see the only person in the world who actually gave a fuck about how I feel die miserable and in pain, okay!?” Lily yanked Morgan's tie, pulling her closer. “Or is that not okay for you!? Am I just a coward because I didn't want to see anyone suffering? I admit you had me on not donating to neighborhoods in need... but that was because I just didn't know how bad or desperate it got. I WOULD HAVE HELPED IF I KNEW!” She said, punching her in the face once again.

“IS THAT GOOD ENOUGH FOR YOU!? Or do you wanna keep insulting me!? I can take it! I've heard much worse from everyone for my entire life! Everyone makes assumptions about me like they know who I really am... but they don't even know me!” Morgan snarled and elbowed Lily in the face, making her stumble onto her back as she got up. Morgan grabbed the collar of her dress and lifted her to her feet, before slamming a knee into her stomach and forcing her to double over and slamming her elbow in the back of Lily's head, making her slam into the ground.

“What is going on!?” A voice shouted from a nearby clearing. Morgan looked over to see who said that, and saw that it was Robin, along with her little brother Florence. Morgan said nothing, Lily slowly standing back up, rubbing her face and looking at her hand to notice that her face was beginning to bleed. “Robin ran up to them both and grabbed onto Lily's shoulder to help stand her up, making her face Morgan. “Look, I might not understand what you were talking about, but if you two are fighting this needs to stop immediately, we're a team! We can't just keep fighting each other.” She contended, trying to diffuse the situation. 

“You're not my mother, Robin.” Morgan murmured, rubbing the blood from her mouth on her forearm. Robin frowned at that, but let it pass. “Do they always do this?” Florence wondered. Robin shook her head and sighed. “I don't rightly know, I've never seen them fight before.” Morgan sighed and began to walk again.

“Let's just go.” Morgan demanded, walking along the pathway they found, Florence slowly walking behind them both. Lily eventually began to follow, and things got quiet again except for when Florence would point out how beautiful the forest naturally was, with its natural earthy blues, greens and browns.

After an hour, Lily stopped to speak. “Wait, everyone.” Lily quietly inhaled and walked between the three other members of their small group, taking off the backpack and placing it on the ground. “What is it, Lily?” Florence asked her, wondering why she dropped the backpack. “Well... I quit.” Lily quickly stated. Robin frowned, walking up to her and rubbing her shoulder. “You don't need to quit, honey...” Lily sighed, gently turning away from Robin. “Lily reached down to grab her own canteen, but nothing else. “I know what I want, Robin. I give up.” She said, slowly walking the direction from whence she came. “You can keep the backpack, Morgan.” She said, slowly disappearing into the forest. 

“What the hell was with her...?” Morgan said under her breath, gesturing for Florence and Robin to follow her.

Lily walked alone, she felt sad and dizzy, but just picked up the pace so she couldn't think about it. Looking straight at the floor the entire time but occasionally looking back up to see if she was heading the right way. She walked and walked quietly through the forest as she began to talk to herself. “Is delaying all I really do?” She shook her head and slowly walked over to a nearby tree, leaning against it and slowly sliding down into a sitting position as she hugged her skirt clad knees. 

“I don't know anymore...” She sighed quietly, burying her head in her palms and stares at the ground quietly. She felt like she lost all of her energy along with her motivation, She just wanted to sit there until the sun set, she wanted to make sure everyone at least passed her so she could just quietly head back on her own. After about an hour of just sitting there, her fog was suddenly cut away with a voice.

“Lily?”A female voice said to her, Lily looked up and saw that Maria and Jonah were looking down at her. Maria walking forward and crouching down. “M-maria? How did you find me?” She asked, still feeling quite upset. Maria reached her hand out and Lily grasped onto it as she pulled her back up to look at the shorter redhead. Maria smirked some. “You're wearing a white dress, I could see you from like 1000 feet off from how badly you stand out.” She nodded and chuckled some. Jonah looked at her and walked up beside Maria. “Hey... she's bleeding, Maria.” Maria looked down and noticed that her forehead got cut open, along with some blood coming out of your mouth.

“What happened?” Maria asked, gently patting her on the shoulder to tell her to come walk with them. “Something happened... It's a long story.” She briefly explained, Maria nodded to that and she kept walking. “And what at you planning to do now?” Lily looked at the floor, rubbing her arm nervously as she explained. “I'm going to forfeit.” Maria frowned at that. “You shouldn't quit.” She stated bluntly. “At least not just yet.”

Lily shook her head some and wiped another tear from her eye. “What else am I supposed to do? Maybe I'm not cut out for doing all of this.” Maria stopped Lily, grabbing her on the shoulders and looking at her straight into her green eyes. “I'll listen to you and see how I can help.” Her voice was kind of soft and stoic sounding, but Lily quietly just stared at her face as it dawned upon her. Maybe Maria hasn't changed as much as she thought. She quickly hugged her tightly, instead, Maria not really hugging back but not pushing her away either. “Thanks... Maria.” Maria smiled and gave a reassuring nod “Don't worry about it.” Maria said, letting Lily keep hugging her. “Just follow me for now, alright?” She let go and nodded “Alright...” She said as they ventured deeper into the forest together with Jonah following just behind.

“So, what happened?” Maria asked simply. Lily sighed to herself, crossing her arms over her own chest as she looked at Maria and Jonah. “We got into a fight.” Maria sneered at that and shook her head. “What a bitch...” She commented, but Lily shook her head. “She had a point... But I couldn't take the constant insults. And I just launched at her and started to hit her.” Lily explained, Jonah looked surprised by that, walking a little faster to look at her face when he talked. “Wait, YOU hit HER?” He asked, she just nodded and sighed. “I'm not proud of it either, Jonah.” Maria unfolded the map as she spoke, checking their directions again. 

“She was upset that me or my father never preformed any acts of charity... she has a point. I mostly didn't think people were as desperate as I thought... But my father has a different story altogether.” Jonah nodded as Maria began to check for any upcoming hazards on the map. “Ever since mom divorced him, he just buried his face so deep in his business the only person who actually spends any time with him is his advisers. I never hear more than a sentence from him... He didn't even care that I was joining Spectrum or anything.”

Jonah nodded and looked a little sad at that. “Yeah... Charity is nice and all but your dad doesn't even seem to want to have anyone around, I don't think anyone's going to get money from him while he's still breathing.” He stated, Lily shook her head and sighed. “I'm going to do my best to help people when I can... I don't want to come up with excuses.” Jonah sighed and looked at her. “Charity isn't supposed to be out of obligation, Lily. Charity is out of kindness for your fellow man, only donate if you feel like you want to help them, not because you feel like you just want to save face.” 

Lily nodded gently. “That's what I'm going to try and do when I get the chance.” Jonah smiled at that as Maria cut into their conversation. “We're about 3 miles out from a pretty big river, We have to cross it or else we'll have to head 30 miles to walk around the lake it feeds into.” She stated as a matter of fact, Jonah spoke up to ask a question. “How wide is the river, do you think?” Maria shook her head some. “I don't really know, just wanted to give you guys a heads up” She said, folding up the map and placing it back into her backpack and taking a swig from her canteen while they continued to hike.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In hindsight, I feel like I didn't utilize my other characters as much as I think I should have, it feels like I kind of dump people off in the background to focus on two or three people at a time. But this is practice, and I'm going to attempt to represent people a bit better for my later chapters.


	7. By First Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria and Jonah, now accompanied by Lily trek their way through the forest to their destination. They speak a bit about their lives and feelings up to this point, and fail miserably at navigating basic things such as rivers.

Maria continued to lead the group through the forest, carefully observing the map and constantly trying to reference her position with the map. She heard the rushing sounds of a river and quickly looked for a river on the map, finding one about miles from the school, and about a third of the way to the temple from their starting point. 

She stepped through a clearing and saw the large river she just saw on the map, she tilted back to shout at Jonah and Lily. “River's here! It's bigger than I thought.” She claimed, Jonah walked from the clearing along with Lily, Jonah gently rubbing his cheek as it was covered with slightly red covered bumps. “If I knew it was mosquito season I would have brought some ointment or something...” 

Lily giggled at that, her mouth stopped bleeding, but she had a red stain on the corner of her mouth. “Mosquitoes are attracted by smell, right? You must be sweating a bunch or something.” Lily jested, Jonah glared at her and stomped his foot. “Oh quiet, you! I don't smell!” he said, infuriated. But Maria just shrugged her shoulders and looked over the river. “Lily, Remember to not sleep anywhere near him.” Lily quickly saluted with a “Yes, Ma'am!” Jonah snapped back at Maria for saying that. “H-hey!”

Maria looked at the river and crouched down to place her hand in the water. The fast flow of water cover her hand and pushed firmly against it, she looked up and the water was flowing fast, though it wasn't shallow enough to cause white water. “It looks like this river might be tough to wade across.” She calmly observed before standing back up. Jonah walked up just behind her and looked over her shoulder, watching the water move by at the fast but steady pace. “Does that mean we should go around?” He asked, Maria shook her head and pulled her backpack out, shuffling through it's supplies. 

“No, but it gives me an idea.” Maria began, wrapping a rope around her wrist and pulling it out. “Do either of you have any experience swimming?” Lily answered first, sounding a bit unsure. “N-not really...” Jonah replied just afterward. “Nothing that says I'm good at it.” He remarked, Maria shrugging her shoulders. “I'm only okay at swimming,” Maria replied, hefting the rope over her arm and onto her shoulder. “I was gonna ask if either of you knew how to tie a knot, but since it apparently doesn't matter who crosses, I'll assume I'm the only one for now.” She commented, beginning to wade into the water as it flowed to her ankles. 

“I'll complain about that comment later, But how do you plan to get the rest of us across?” Jonah asked, with a hint of annoyance still in his voice. Maria just took a deep breath before turning back to look at both of them. “I'll swim across, tie this rope to a tree and throw it to you as you swim across, it should help you if it gets too hard.” She calmly stated, they both just nodded and without a warning Maria just quickly dashed into the water. Getting past her waist and nearly to her head as the flow of the current began to topple her off of her feet. 

She felt her head dip below the water for a moment as she kicked forward and lifted her head to take a sharp gasp for air. She began to quickly kick her legs and cycle arms, pushing her forward through the strong stream. She was quickly being pushed downstream, but she was slowly approaching the other side. The water began to get even rougher, jostling her about and forcing her to roll a couple of times as she kept kicking forward. Eventually she was nearly a hundred feet downstream, but made it across, grabbing onto some nearby rocks and standing back up. Her coat and pants were wet, and she was nearly completely out of breath. She grabbed onto her knees and started to cough and inhale deeply as a voice shouted to her from a small distance away.

“Maria, you okay!?” Jonah shouted, she looked up at him, brushing the wet red hair from her eyes. He looked diminutive from just how far away he was. Maria was shocked that the river actually pulled her that far away. She just assumed she was a weaker swimmer than she thought. “Yeah, I'm good! Hold on a second!” She said, running along the waterline back to face them. Once she lined up, she gazed across the river and tried to guess how far apart she was to Lily and Jonah. She felt like the fifty feet of rope might just be long enough to throw across, but now wasn't the time for measurements. Maria spun around and tied the rope to the tree, making sure to use a tight knot so it didn't slip. 

“Alright, guys. One at a time, run into the water and I'll toss the rope! Grab it and drag yourself across the rest of the way!” Maria shouted over the sound of the running water. Lily and Jonah nodded, looking at each other and discussing quietly. “Should I go first, or you go first?” Lily inquired quietly, Jonah chuckled and crossed his arms. “I'll let you go first, I don't know how well this will turn out, I wanna gauge my chances.” Lily sighed and walked forward to stand at the edge of the water, Maria nodded at her. “Take my backpack with you, alright?” Maria implored, Lily looked down and inspected Maria's open survival pack. She zipped it shut and placed it around one shoulder. 

She dove into the water, backpack tightly gripped to her shoulder and side as the water was quickly getting past her waist. Maria lurched her arm back and tossed the rope as hard as she could upstream, the rope uncoiling as it splashed into the water. “It's in the water, Grab it!” Maria shouted, hoping Lily would hear her.

Lily flailed and came up for a quick breath of air. She looked to the right of her and couldn't see the rope, she leaned up to swim a couple more feet when suddenly, she felt something glance her leg. She took a gamble and plunged her hand deeper into the water, feeling the coiled rope texture sliding along her leg. She quickly grasped at it before lifting it to her arms and grabbing onto both. She slowly pulled herself along it before she realized that she was being dragged downstream fast enough to make the rope tense up and drag her to the waters edge. She quickly tried to stand up once she felt like the water was becoming more shallow, but stumbled and landing onto her hands and feet. 

“The water is way faster than I thought...” She commented, looking up to Maria as she reached down to help Lily back onto her feet, taking the backpack and putting it back onto herself. “Yeah.. That shocked me.” Maria commented, before walking up to the rope tied to the tree. Slowly pulling and wrapping the rope back on her arm as she looked over for Jonah, who was standing in the same spot he was just before. “Jonah, go for it!” Maria shouted, Jonah hesitated for a brief moment before diving into the water. 

The sudden surge of water surprised him, he flailed for a couple of seconds as the currently lifted him off his feet, He began to spin and kick his feet to get himself to tread. He gasped and finally got upright, but he was being quickly pulled downstream. Maria launched the rope into the river and hoped he could catch it. The rope splashed and slowly began to pull downstream. He gritted his teeth and tried to swim for it, but he realized that the rope was still attached to the tree, and he was being pulled away from it. He swam harder, trying to get closer to the rope but all that happened was he drifted further away. He gasped, running out of energy and began to tumble around the water. “H-help!” He shouted.

“Shit...” Maria muttered. Running to the rope tied to the tree and untying it with a brief struggle, She quickly grabbed the end of the rope and used her other arm to coil it over and over around her other shoulder. Finally finishing, she pointed downstream. “Lily, Chase him! I'll try and get the rope to him!” Lily nodded and began to run down the water line, watching out for rocks as she tried to catch up to Jonah, who nearly was one hundred feet away from just turning away to untie the knot.

The river was quite fast, Lily had to actually break out into a run to keep pace with it. Maria followed behind, running just past Lily and eventually catching up to Jonah, who was trying to paddle closer, but kept being pulled away by the fast current. “Catch!” Maria shouted, launching the rope just in front of him. But she realized the river was actually beginning to widen, even though that meant the water was shallower, it also meant he was farther away. It missed by just a few feet, she growled, keeping the run as she coiled the rope back up quickly around her arm.

Jonah coughed and sputtered as he tried to look back at the two girls chasing after him down the river. Maria launching another coil of rope down the river, making sure to grab onto the other end. “C'mon, grab it!” She shouted, and he reached out for it, but it slipped away from his hand and Maria was forced to pull back the rope. “Damn it!” Maria cursed, picking up the pace and beginning to run at her full tilt. Slowly making past Jonah, but Maria wanted even more distance. She wanted to be far away enough to jump in and swim after him. She made it almost one hundred and fifty feet ahead as she began to heavily pant from how exhausted the sprint just was. She ran back into the water but noticed there was another splash just close by. 

“I got it!” A male voice said, swimming toward Jonah who was still panicking from being whisked away from moderately fast water. Maria stopped and watched the boy swim, he seemed to be pretty alright at it, his dark chestnut colored hair was familiar enough for Maria to recognize him. “Gabriel!?” He grabbed onto Jonah's collar and dragged him through the water, swimming back to shore as Maria launched the rope at him, he was able to quickly grab it and pull himself along with Jonah ashore on the other side of the river. Jonah was panting quietly, laying on the ground coughing up excess water as Gabriel stand back up, giving a friendly salute. 

“How the hell did you find us?” Maria wondered aloud, Gabriel gave a giggle as Erika walked up along side him from leaning against a tree, her huge waraxe attached to her back, her ginger hair dripping wet from clearly crossing the river. “Oh, you must have been walking a little faster than us, We got to this river and had to cross. Gabriel was just about done as we heard you guys yelling.” Erika explained trying to wring her shoulder length hair from all the water. Gabriel nodded, walking up and patting the handle. “Getting Erika's gigantic axe across was really hard, but we did it.” He said, excitedly. Maria nodded and looked down at her, she was completely soaked in water along with everyone else.

Her suit jacket was drenched, and her dress shirt was uncomfortably transparent, even if she wore just a black tank top underneath of it. She sighed and pulled off her jacket, wringing it out of the water as she talked to them. “Do you guys have towels?” Maria asked, Gabriel just shook his head. “Nope, We'll have to air dry.” Maria groaned at that, opening her backpack and checking to see if everything in it was still intact, luckily, the backpack was pretty waterproof and nothing even got damp. She took the canteens attached to it, filling both of them with the clean, flowing river water before closing off both caps. 

She sighed and put it back on her shoulder, undoing the tie around her neck and just letting it hang off to dry. She gestured everyone to follow her, which they did, Jonah still quietly panting as they walked. The breeze from the feeling of their wet clothes drying off made everyone get a chill, Maria's skin felt damp, numb and cold, Jonah started to shiver as they walked. Maria slung her jacket around her shoulders as they walked deeper into the forest. 

Lily walked up to Jonah, gently rubbing a shoulder to see if she could help him warm up a little bit, he looked at her with a smile as she looked back up at him. “So, Jonah... Tell us about yourself.”

He appreciated the question, giving a light nod as he spoke aloud. “Well, Lily. I'm super distantly related to Claire The Unifyer. She helped the 5 kingdoms gather together to fight off the Astrians over five hundred years ago.” Lily nodded at that, jaw dropping a little bit. “Oh, that's super cool!” Jonah chuckled a bit at that, quickly replying. “Yeah, but that was 5 centuries ago, so it's a very distant relation.” He mentioned, She nodded some more, legitimately curious and listening to what he said like she was a lost puppy.

“Her son became a doctor, and took the Oath Of the Sworn Doctor to always treat a patient. His son became a doctor as well.. and onward through the generations all the way to me. My father is a Surgeon and my Mother a Dietitian, Hell, I think my uncle is also a Doctor. ” He clarified, Lily nodding again with a look of curiosity. “What kind of doctor?” She asked, Jonah laughed awkwardly and looked at the ground, quietly mumbling something. She leaned a little closer, not exactly hearing that. “Could you say that a little louder?” Jonah sighed and kicked a small rock aside as he was walking, “Fine, he was a Proctologist, okay?” Lily blinked a couple of times, and heard a Chuckle from Maria up ahead. “Your uncle is a butt doctor then?” Maria said mockingly, Jonah looked flustered, pointing at her as he complained.

“Hey, butt doctors are just as important as any other doctor!” He loudly exclaimed., and Maria just sarcastically chuckled. “...I meant Proctologist, that's supposed to be an official title! Don't try and defame it or anything!” Maria grinned at him. “Butt doctor.” She quickly quipped, Jonah just sighed and sunk his head in defeat, before looking back at Lily. “They wanted me to be a doctor as well, but I can't handle gore and I have a lingering feeling I'll leave some Forceps in a guys stomach or something if they put me on a surgery team one day...” 

Lily chuckled at that, but then picked up her pace to walk next to Maria, She inspected her face and noticed that the stitches in her forehead were gone. “Hey, When did you get your stitches removed?” She asked, Maria shrugged her shoulders and rubbed the bumpy scars on her head. “I asked for them to be removed the day after I left the infirmary. So that'd be... about 4 days ago?” Maria answered, not entirely sure because she'd been passing in and out of consciousness from the nightmares she's been having. 

“Hey, is it alright if I asked you something?” Lily wondered, Maria looked at her and folded away her map, tucking it under her arm. “Go ahead.” Maria responded. Lily took a deep breath and just got it over with. “Why did you do that to our room? Like.. the curtains were sliced up, the dresser got totaled and there were holes in the walls.” Maria was taken aback by that, but slowly just looked at the ground as they walked. “I don't think you'd understand. So it's none of your business, Lily.” Maria quietly dismissed her, the ghostly bird perching on her shoulder and quietly speaking just afterward. “Maybe you should apologize, Maria.” Maria scoffed a little at that comment, sliding her hands into the pockets of her pants.

“What does that mean?” Lily inquired, feeling slightly upset for Maria not telling her. “It means exactly what I said, Lily.” Maria interjected, crossing her arms and looking away. “You wouldn't get it, it's weird.” Lily frowned and shook her head. “Can you not brush me off, Maria? I need to know if you're okay.” She said, frustrated. Maria just glared at her in response. “I told you everything you need to know, Lily. It's complicated and I'm sorry it involved me screwing up the room... I couldn't tell you more unless you wanted to think I was insane.” She said, walking away from her before going back to checking her map, Lily just sighed, slowing back down to walk along with the other 3 members of her group.

 

The sun slowly turned a pale orangeish red as the dark forest canopy grew darker, the light underneath the trees began to fade into an almost night like darkness, the only light was the orange sunlight shooting between the gaps of the leaves. Maria stopped and turned to the rest of the group to make an announcement. “We're running out of daylight, but I have some good news.” She started, looking around for a nice clearing as she spoke. “We've made it just about 2/3rds of the way to the temple, another 6-7 hours of walking and we'll be there.” She said, Jonah sighed in relief and stretched as he gave out a yawn. “Oh thank goodness, My feet were getting blisters...” Jonah said, relieved from his yawn. Maria nodded, but continued to speak. “But we're losing sunlight and we don't have a light source, We're gonna search for a spot to camp for the night.” She said, folding up the map into her pocket as she looked around.

Maria turned away from them and issued a simple order. “Find an open enough spot for us to sleep.” They nodded and broke away from her, beginning to search the area for a place to rest. She began to walk underneath the trees and quietly began to pick up sticks and branches, carrying them under her arm. Along with that, she found some fuzzy remains of a dead tree which were very dry and bundled up, and she put that into her hand. She kept gathering sticks until she head the distant yell of Erika just a couple hundred of feet. “Found a clearing!” Maria looked up, noticing that the sound came from the left, so she began to head that way. “Everyone, Over here!” Erika shouted indiscriminately, trying to get everyone to head over to her directly. 

Maria walked over the thick tree roots into a small clearing, the canopy opened up to reveal the slightly star filled twilight sky, several small clouds drifting overhead. Jonah arrived next. “Oh god, finally a place that isn't one hundred percent tree.” He said, taking a seat in a patch of grass and yawning. Lily and Gabriel arrived next together, sitting beside each other on the grass as Maria stood up. “Well.. I might as well ask if any of you know how to make a fire?” Maria inquired, with no reply. The silent became kind of awkward, Maria sighing and taking a seat. “Guess not.” Maria placed the bundle of sticks in a patch of flat dirt, grabbing a small log along with a stick. “Welp, I saw this on TV, it shouldn't be hard.” Maria said quietly to herself. The bird interjected, standing atop her head and peering down. “I'm not sure that's how you do it...” He commented, Maria just sighed, grabbing the stick and rubbing it between her hands on the piece of tinder resting atop the log. “Hush up already.” she said, under her breath as she tried to get enough friction to light a fire.

But even after 5 minutes of straight twirling her hands back and forth like an idiot, she didn't even see any smoke. On top of that, her arms were starting to get tired, she growled in frustration, grabbing the stick and throwing it aside, causing it to careen and smack into a nearby tree. “OH FUCK THIS!” She shouted, standing up between the other four. “Do any of you have any ideas to light a fire?” Erika raised her hand, Maria turning a shoulder to look at her, and in her hand was a small metal lighter. 

“I forget I have this, sometimes.” She quietly commented, Maria scowled and walked up, taking the lighter out of her hands and inspecting it. “Is it full?” She nodded, “Yep, my dad gave it to me before I moved out so I'd think of him. He's kind of a smoker...” Erika commented with a chuckle. Maria just sighed, flicking open the cap and seeing inspecting the spark wheel, before shaking it a couple of times to confirm. “Great, now I feel stupid.” She bent down to the woodpile, flicking the spark wheel and causing the tip to set ablaze. She leaned down near the ember, but her hands began to shake. The hair on the back of her neck began to stand up and she quickly closed the lid. She sighed, standing up and tossing the lighter towards Jonah with a “Catch.”

Jonah was surprised, catching it just barely and looking at it. “Why can't you light it yourself?” He asked, Maria just walked over to take a seat next to Lily. “That doesn't matter.” She said, trying to brush him off. Jonah shook his head and bent down, lighting the fire quite easily. Sighing and taking a seat in front of the campfire. He glanced over to Maria, only to notice she was about ten feet farther back than when she was previously sitting. “What's with you, Maria? You're acting all weird..” He mentioned, Maria looking at the floor and mumbling to herself. “What was that? I didn't hear you.” Jonah said, leaning up to see if he could hear her. “I DON'T LIKE FIRE, OKAY?” She shouted across to him, Lily looking away with a soft sigh as everyone else just kinda looked at her. 

“Fire doesn't bite, does it?” Gabriel added with a smile to try and reassure her a little. “You don't know fire like how I know fire.” She replied, leaning against a nearby tree before starting to explain. “Lily didn't bring her sleeping bag, so one of us will have to just not sleep in one.” Lily awkwardly chuckled as Maria brought that up. “Yeah... my fault! I kinda... acted irrationally.” She explained, Maria trying to act like a calm leader while huddling up in a fetal position, clearly displaying her commanding sense of leadership. “I'll keep watch, you four can sleep.” Jonah frowned a little bit at Maria opting for an all night watch duty. “That's a bit crazy to just stay up all night to keep guard, everyone needs sleep y'know.” Maria stood up and stretched her back just a bit, putting on her coat. 

“I'll live.” She responded tersely. They just agreed and began to set up the sleeping bags, sitting onto them as they talked. Eventually after nearly half an hour, Maria managed to sit close enough to the fire to not require shouting at her as Jonah leaned forward with a grin. “Well... Since we're setting up to get to bed. Maybe we should share scary stories!” He said with the excitement of his dormant 12 year old personality, even if he was nearly 18. Lily smiled, raising her arms with enthusiasm with a big grin. “I've never done that before! This will be really cool.” She said with the stupid grin on her face, Maria shrugged her shoulders as Jonah scooted up to the fire. “I'll start.” He said, clearing his throat.

“There once was a cabin... deep in the forest.” He started, leaning up so his arms rested onto his knees as he gave quite the smug smirk. “Did it have plumbing?” Maria interjected, her voice a dull monotone. Jonah sighed, shaking his head and looking up at her. “Maria, that doesn't matter in this story.” Maria shrugged her shoulders. “It matters to me, if he doesn't have a well or something he'll just die of thirst.”Maria said, it was pretty clear she was just being a sarcastic jerk, not actually interested in the story or anything. Jonah looked bemused, before sighing and rubbing the back of his head. “I dunno, he lives next to a river or something.” He explained with a throwaway answer, but immediately Maria snapped back. “Does he even purify the water? Man, he'd have so much Cholera in his system..” Jonah gritted his teeth at that, clearly annoyed. “Maria, shut up and let me continue the story.” He implored, but Maria just shrugged again.

“Alright, good.” Jonah started, going back into his storytelling position. “He was at his home, when a phone began to ring. He went over and picked it up... and there was a voice. A raggedy, upset kind of voice. He said... 'Where are your children?' He wondered what he meant by that... First of all, how did he know he had children? Second... How did he know this number? Well, here's your answ-” Jonah was interrupted by Maria with another sarcastic quip. “How the hell did he get a phone connection in THE MIDDLE OF A FOREST?” Jonah just face palmed by Maria's attempts to pick apart or derail the story, he just sighed and stood up. “Okay, screw the story. Let's just go to bed already...” He said, nonplussed, Maria gave a chuckle and shook her head. Walking over to a nearby tree and slowly climbing up it. 

“What are you doing, Maria?” He asked, Maria balancing on a low, thick branch and leaning against the trunk. “Being up here means I can keep night's watch better, also there will be less insects to mess with me.” She explained casually, but he just frowned. “it's because you're afraid of the campfire, isn't it?” Maria growled at that and looked away from him. “How bout shut up?” She said, trying to brush him off.  
He just sighed and got into his sleeping back, and eventually everyone else began to as well. Things got quiet except for the whispers, the sun faded and the starry night sky began to shine, covering everything in faint moonlight except for the orange glow of the campfire. Even the whispers began to settle down as people actually fell asleep in their sleeping bags, even if they didn't have a tent. Maria pulled her weapon out of her bag and lightly rested it on her lap as she sat up on the tree, hovering just about ten feet off of the ground. 

The bird once again stood on her shoulder. “I think you have nice friends, Maria.” He said, trying to sound chipper with his super calm, gentle voice. Maria sighed, looking at him and his softly glowing orange eyes, and see through body. “I don't really consider them my friends, I barely know them.” She contested, her voice quiet enough not to wake anyone up. He chirped some, surprised that Maria didn't want to try smacking him upside the head. “But you know Lily, isn't she your friend?” He asked, curiously. Maria looked at the floor and sighed. “I knew Lily, but I don't know her. She might want different people in her life and I wouldn't even know it.” He sighed some and looked around. “Well... That Jonah boy seems nice, when you aren't completely ruining his scary stories.” Maria gave a slight chuckle at that. “Well... I think he's okay. He's sort of a wuss though.” She commented, looking at the bird, she was too tired from walking nearly thirty miles in one day to actually be angry anymore. 

“Why did you do that, anyway?” He asked, trying to groom at one of his wing feathers, even though he was intangible and it didn't actually matter, he seemed to realize that soon enough as well. “I'm just not a fan of scary stories.” She replied, the bird just responded with a flat “Oh.” She sighed and leaned back against the tree trunk. “It's gonna be a long 48 hours, sitting here waiting isn't going to make it go by any quicker.” She said, he looked at her and tilted his head some. “Well... You could always talk to me, if you want.” He said, hoping that was enough to convince her. 

“I still haven't gotten past the fact you killed my parents.” Maria said, lifting her knee up just high enough to rest her arm on and rest her chin in her hand. “I mean it, Maria. It was just an accident, I couldn't control myself anymore.” He explained with a voice tinging of sorrow, she sighed and leaned back, looking up at the stars. “It's not that I'm calling you a liar... But you still were the culprit, my feelings stand.” She replied, crossing her arms and closing her eyes for a brief moment. 

“I'm still sorry...” He said, leaning up a little bit to look at her. “Whatever, bird.” She said, reaching up and scratching her head a couple of times before yawning. “You can just call me Gale, instead of bird.” He started, hopping back down and perching on the branch in front of her. “So... Why didn't any of your family adopt you after you lost your home?” He inquired, giving another chirp as he slowly gazed down at everyone else sleeping. “No one wanted to bother, I guess. I knew my uncle could have adopted me but... He was weird and barely talked to me, he could barely stand seeing my dad in the same room as my sister.” She explained, looking up at him as he looked at the area curiously. “Did he tell you that?” He asked, but Maria just gently shook her head.

“No, but I could see it in his eyes and his sudden shift in attitude whenever dad was brought up. Dad hated him just as much, he always took away my TV when I told him I went to go see him... Anyway, he was too focused on raising his perfect little daughter then having to worry about a second one.” She clarified, trying to shuffle into a more comfortable position on the tree. The bird looked down with a sigh. “Oh... I see.” 

Maria yawned, looking around for any threats while she talked. “So... What are you?” She asked casually, he looked up at her and tried his best to explain. “Actually, because my original body died, a lot of memories died along with it. I do know a little bit and will try my best to explain” He replied.

“The burns caused on your back by me contained ashes directly from my body. Ash in the body causes Ash poisoning usually, but you didn't have enough to die. When Spectrum tracked me down and killed me, I was still close enough to transfer a small portion of my soul to the remains left on your back. I'm very weak and can't interact with anything, but I still have my consciousness.” He clarified, Maria nodded and unzipped her blade to inspect it. Pulling her sword out as he talked. “Though, I was dormant, grabbing that blade awoke your magical abilities. I took a very small amount of it to manifest myself, It's why you got dizzy when you grabbed it the first time.” He continued, walking up and looking up at the tree, before flying atop to perch right on Maria's head. 

“That still didn't explain just what you are.” Maria criticized, he nodded and began to talk once again. “All I know is that when I fell from the rift, I grew insane. Many of my brethren fly into a blind rage once they arrive here. But being held within your soul I'm so weak that I'm able to retain my old personality, even if I don't remember what was on the other side of that rift.” He chirped, flying back onto her shoulder. “That good enough?” He asked, Maria didn't reply. He looked at her and realized she just quickly fell asleep after several hours of sitting in a tree, so he decided to let her rest.

A couple hours passed, Maria not moving from being deeply tired and trying to get some rest, Gale panicked and whispered to her to wake up, even if it meant that she would have another nightmare as soon as he spoke. “Hey... Wake up! Somethings wrong...” He said, worried, Maria began to sweat and shake, before waking up with a shriek and careening her out of the tree along with the weapon on her lap and smashing right into the ground underneath. “Ow... Okay, I'm up.” She said, still tired. It was still night, but it was pretty clear that a couple hours have passed. “There are beasts nearby... I can sense them.” Gale said, glaring around the area, Maria dusted herself off and looked around.

Fear stuck her immediately as soon as she looked into the forest, there were pairs of red eyes surrounding the campsite, the flame slowly beginning to die as she locked eyes with them. She heard one of them quietly begin to growl. Maria leaned down to pull her sword from the bag, holding it in her right hand as she slowly walked over to try and wake the others. “Shit... this looks bad.” She said, before running down to shake Jonah's shoulder. 

“Huh..whuh...?” Jonah said, in a haze, groggy and starting to rub his eyes. “Maria.. it's not even morning yet...” Maria grabbed him by the shoulder and quickly pulled him up to stand up with her, even if he stumbled just a bit from the sudden move. “We're under attack, wake the others.” Maria stated, Jonah suddenly snapped back to being fully awake when she said that. “R-really!?” Maria gave a quiet nod and pointed over to wake the others. Maria holding out her blade in preparation for the attack of whatever was hiding in the forest. 

“We're in for a long night...” She said, not breaking her stare away from them in case that the fight began.


	8. Thrown To The Wolves

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Their first fight breaks out after an attempt at a peaceful nights sleep, chaos ensues as many people get injured.

Maria managed to wake everyone else up, readying all of their weapons as they spoke to each other quietly. Everyone was still groggy from only getting a couple hours of sleep, but that wasn't as big of a deal as of now. They stood in a small circle a couple of feet apart from each other as the crimson eyes stared at them from the darkness of the forest. 

Lily's scimitar was trembling in her hands, she was frightened beyond all belief by this. “Do you think they're hostile?” She asked, Maria eyes scanned her surroundings before replying. “They're Riftfallen, they'll probably be more than just hostile.” Maria responded, clutching onto her sword as the beasts began to growl, walking into the clearing almost completely in unison. They looked like wolves, yet looked different to them as well. Their eyes were glowing blood red, they were slightly bigger and their fur was jet black.

One of them howled, and the wolves began to rush at the group of students, their speed was insanely quick and they closed the 30 foot gap almost instantly. One of them leaped at Maria, slashing hard with his enhanced claws, Maria barely sidesteps to one side as she swung at it. But she wasn't close enough so she missed. She suddenly heard Gale shout. “BEHIND YOU!” She quickly ducked her head down and a second wolf leaped overhead, seemingly trying to go for her throat. 

Maria took a couple of short hops backward, lowering her stance as she inspected the area. There was an entire pack of these wolves. If she had to guess, there'd be about 8-10 of them total. She saw one of the wolves leap at Jonah, slashing at his back hard enough to slice his coat. He cried in pain, spinning around and cracking his shield upside the wolves head, it leaped backward as another wolf pounced onto him, he lifted his sword just in time and the wolf bit onto it, thrashing before he quickly kicked it away. 

Erika swung her large axe to try and hit the wolves or get them to back off, but they were just too quick for her and would constantly leap backward so her swings would miss. She had so much momentum with each swing that she had to slow herself down and wind up for another hit constantly. She missed a swing and a wolf launched at her, pushing her onto her back as it tried to bite her neck. She punched into its throat and grabbed it by the head. It snarled and bit at her, but its strength was tremendous, her hands began to tremble while she held back its head, even if it was getting closer. 

Suddenly, a bloody sword plunged straight through its mouth and all life faded from it, The sword retracted and Maria gently kicked it to the side. Erika stood back up, patting Maria once on the shoulder as a sign of thanks. The wolves began to surround the group once again. “There's too many of them..” Lily said, she felt like she was being overwhelmed. Maria looked at the floor before coming up with an off the wall plan. She ran past the wolf pack completely as they waited to attack, before swinging her sword and smacking the side of it against the tree to make a very loud ring. 

“HEY YOU BASTARDS! COME AND GET ME ALREADY!” She said, shouting. Some of their ears perked at that and began to slowly trod towards her. “Guys, I'll have some of them chase me so you can fight the rest.” She shouted over to her allies, but Lily looked over at her with concern. “W-what?! Why? You're just put yourself in danger!” Lily said, worried as she kept her scimitar ready for another attack. “Just trust me...” Maria said, smacking the sword a couple more times before turning around and running deeper into the forest. Suddenly, 5 of the wolves ran off to go after her while the rest stayed.

The five wolves began to charge at the students again, slashing Lily on the arm as she quickly swung her blade at the wolf, it sliced it's face as black blood began to drip from it. The wolf yelped and backed away, but suddenly a second one attacked Lily from the side, biting firmly into her shoulder. She screamed and fell to the ground, looking up at the wolf as it didn't want to let go. Suddenly, a bladed whip snapped around it's throat, lifting it and dragging it away. Gabriel slung the wolf aside before cracking his whip again to slash at it. “Enough from you!” He shouted at the wolf, Lily saw another one charge at him, but she grabbed her blade with her uninjured arm and swung up at it. He had so much momentum that he got immediately decapitated by her blade, his body careening to the floor along with his separate head.

She sighed a bit of relief and noticed that Jonah was being assaulted by three other wolves, each one leaping to slash at him. His arms and legs getting covered up as he tried to protect his face and torso. “Gabriel! Help Jonah!” She shouted between her breaths, Gabriel nodded and went after the wolves, awkwardly swinging his whip to lash into one of their backs, getting their attention. Lily stood back up and ran over to Jonah, kicking one in the shoulder before taking a few wide swings at them, they started to back off as she helped Jonah onto his feet. He began to pant and shiver as he looked at the Platinum blonde standing in front of her. “T-thanks..” He said, looking at the four remaining wolves.

Erika continues to swing at the wolves when they back off of Jonah, managing to get a lucky swing and smash straight into one, turning it into a pile of black blood and gore on the floor of the forest clearing. “And that's why I picked the axe..” She said quietly, knowing that she might not hit all the time, but as soon as she does, that would be the last attack she'd need to use. She turned to fight the three remaining wolves as they began to try and gang up on Lily.

Lily swung her scimitar at the wolves as they lunged at her, even though she was able to slash at them, none of the cuts seem to go deep enough to stop them from coming at her, Erika ran after on and swung wildly at it, causing Lily to jump back in a panic from the sight of the huge axe. “C-careful with that axe, Erika!” Lily shouted, ducking to the side as a wolf leaped at her. “Sorry!” Erika shouted, swinging at one that just lept at her and cleaving it in two. The other wolves didn't even want to run away in fear, or even flinch at seeing one of their pack mates get taken out like that. Is this insanity an effect of being rift fallen? Another one pounced Lily, slashing it's sharp claws against Lily's face right across one of her eyes. 

Lily screamed in pain, covering her eye with one hand as she felt warm blood seep between her fingers, she held it tight, keeping the blade in her other hand. Though the pain felt so sharp she could barely even focus with the other one. “Lily!” Jonah shouted, Running over to assist her. Gabriel, who was also just nearby quickly whipped it, the blades along the whip digging deep into it right as Jonah slammed his foot into it's side, pushing it away and causing the blades to tear him to shreds on the ground. 

“Are you okay!?” He shouted, trying to check Lily's eye, but her hand was planted over it, her teeth biting into her lower lip to ease some of the pain. “N-no, not really.” She replied, as Erika quickly finished off the last wolf. Jonah gestured her to follow him as he spoke. “We need to get to Maria, now!” He shouted, running in the same direction Maria ran off to when she said she'll lead them away. Him and the other four ran through the forest, trying to see if they could hear where she went. They stopped for a second and heard faint growling. “She's over there!” She announced, pointing to the west.  
Jonah nodded and lead the group to where they heard the sound, they found a small gully where Maria was on the ground surrounded by three wolves, one standing atop of her. Though she was still nearly 100 feet away, they started to run to her.

Maria was pinned down by a wolf, it was growling and snarling and attempted to bite at her, but she caught the bite with her blade and was slowly twisting it's jaws with the strength of her arms. “GET OFF ME.” She shouted, using a burst of strength and twisting the blade so far to snap the wolf head more than ninety degrees with an audible snap, breaking it's neck and causing it to collapse on top of her. She lifted her arms up to drag the heavy wolf body off from ontop of her as another wolf lunged, biting firmly into her jacket covered left arm easily enough to piece the coat and straight into the flesh underneath. 

Before she could even react or cry in pain, it was already thrashing it's head about, making sprays of blood go everywhere while it gnawed into her forearm, she screamed loudly in pain, desperately reaching for her blade on the ground, but was so panicked she missed it several times. Before grabbing onto the blade and firmly plunging it right into the side of the wolves head. The blade piercing to the other side as she screamed, stabbing it in the skull over and over as fast as possible until it let go of her arm. Which was currently soaked in her own blood. The last wolf smelled the blood and leaped right on top of her right as everyone else arrived, Lily managing to stab it right in the side of it's chest to get it off of her. 

Maria stood up and Lily got a good look at her, she was clearly badly hurt. With cuts on her face and shoulders, her coat was sliced up but possibly the worst thing was the massive amount of blood she was losing from her left arm. “Oh god Maria, Your arm is a mess. Can you use your hand?” Lily asked, hand still over her eye. Maria groaned in pain and lifted her arm. She gently moved her fingers, her hand currently soaked in her own blood. “Well I can at least move my fingers... I think it's better than it looks.” She commented, before suddenly the band around the wrist of her other arm began to beep loudly. “...Fuck.” She said, knowing that would mean she triggered the evacuation helicopter.

“Looks like you're getting extracted.” Jonah said, wrapping an arm around her shoulders to help her walk back to camp. “Let's get everyone patched up before they get here.” Maria sighed and looked at the forest floor, quietly walking back to camp with everyone else. They sat around the fire as Jonah walked up to treat Maria first. “Take off your coat and shirt, Maria.” He asked, Maria quietly agreed and took off her coat and her dress shirt, both stained with blood and leaving her in her tight black tank top. She held out her arm, her pale skin drenched with blood and her arm bleeding a bit more with every heart beat, the flesh was torn straight open almost to the bone as a huge gaping wound. It made him wince as he reached into his backpack to get the medical kit out.

“Can you still feel your hand, Maria?” He asked, quietly, applying some a hemostatic agent to a clean cloth in the medical kit and pressing firmly onto her wounded arm. Maria gently curled her fingers and winced in pain. “Yeah.. It fucking hurts.” She replied, looking away as he then disinfected it, before wrapping it up tightly in a bandage. “That's good, you don't have any nerve damage then.” He replied, letting go of her hand as she lifted it up to inspect it. “My vital tracker went off, but isn't this enough to keep me good for another 2 days?” She asked him, but suddenly she realized that the white gauze began to slowly seep more and more red. “Sadly I used all the styptic that was in our med kit, I slowed the bleeding but you're still leaking like a sieve.” 

Maria sighed and leaned back a bit, crossing her arms. “Don't we have more styptic in the other medical kit?” She inquired, Jonah just shook his head. “I don't want to burn through it all at once, we might need it later. Also, I probably have to treat Lily's face.” He explained, looking up to Lily as she had a bloody rag pressed against the side of her cut face. “And you both better be lucky my dad taught me first aid, you'd be way worse off.” He said, inspecting her other arm for similar cuts.

Maria pressed her hand into the bandage, crossing her arms as she looked at him. “I still don't get why I can't go out there and fight.” She said, a bit annoyed. Jonah looked nonplussed and lifted one of her pant leg to find there was a couple of bite marks on her ankles and calves, but the bleeding stopped. “If you called off the helicopter evac, you'd be anemic within the hour. Which means you won't be even able to carry your own weight.” Maria sighed and looked at the floor. “I really screwed up, huh?” She admitted, he just looked at her and sighed. “We all got hurt at least a bit by the wolves, and you took the biggest risk.” He explained calmly, but Erika chimed in. “You took on five wolves at once, that's gotta give you at least some merit.” She said with a smile, Maria looked up as the sound of whirring blades approached from the distance. 

“I did something stupid, I know” She said, standing up with a slight stumble. She noticed the blood loss has started to take an effect on her. “Stupid... and insane... and suicidal, but brave.” Jonah said with a chuckle. Maria began to walk away from the campfire, but quickly turned around at the comment, a small grin on her face. “Oh fuck you, Jonah.” She said in an amused tone, before the expression went dour and looked at the ground. “I still failed, though.” She calmly admitted with disappointment. “Not really.” Erika said with a smile, standing up and looking at her. They seemed to be about the same height at slightly above 5 feet. “As long as Jonah gets the relic, you two both win.” She said, giving her a pat as the helicopter floated overhead. It lowered to the ground and everyone got blown with a big gust of rotor wash. 

“Alright then...” Maria said, as two people swung the doors of the double propeller helicopter wide open, it looked like medical personnel. She quietly spoke before climbing inside, but leaned out the open door to shout. “HEY, JONAH!” Jonah shouted back at her, hands around his mouth to try and make it louder. “YEAH?” He replied. “DON'T FUCK UP!” She loudly demanded of him, as the doors began to slow and the helicopter slowly lifted into the air and drifted away back toward the academy. 

Jonah sighed, grabbing the second medical kit and sighing. “I don't get her at all...” He complained, before sitting beside Lily and gently removing the rag from her eye. There was still a massive 3 slashes going down her face, starting from her forehead, going past her eye and straight down to near the jaw line. The eyelid looked pretty badly cut up, but it seemed like the eyeball was still intact. He quickly disinfected it with some alcohol, before getting a styptic pencil and gently rubbed down the cut to make the wound close and stop bleeding. “Can you move your eye?” He inquired, and she nodded. “Y-yeah... It hurts but it's the blood blinding me, luckily my eye didn't get shredded.” 

He nodded and placed a large piece of cotton over the eye, before grabbing the gauze and slowly wrapping it around that side of her face, pulling her hair to one side so it didn't get in the way. “This will hold for now, but you need medical attention as soon as we're in the clear.” Lily just nodded as Jonah gave his pinion, and gave a sigh. “You know... I thought this was going to be dangerous, but I didn't expect me to get hurt on just the training mission alone.” He nodded. “You forget how dire the situation is outside of the big protected city walls. Just being out here has some inherent risk alone.” 

Lily sighed and gently hugged her knees as he finished wrapping, the now temporarily one eyed girl just looked at the ground. “Sadly that scar will be there for a long time, rough cuts scar more than clean ones.” He explained, looking at the dancing glow of the campfire as the sound of the helicopter faded from his ears. Lily looked up at the stars, including the black rift smack dab in the middle of the sky. “I kind of wonder if I'm not ready for this...” Jonah frowned as he gently pat her on the shoulder with a smile. “We all think that.” Erika added, leaning forward from just across the campfire. “We're all scared, but someone has to just admit it but be brave anyway. That's why we're all trying to join this academy instead of hiding under our beds in fear.” She finished, giving her a reassuring smile.  
Gabriel pumped his fist. “Yeah! No hiding under our beds! I don't fit underneath mine anyway!” He said with enthusiasm, though Jonah just looked confused. “Uhh... You know it's a metaphor, right?” Gabriel's face suddenly became much more serious with that comment, Jonah leaned back at little because he noticed that he gave one hell of a death glare. “Do not questioning my reasoning of beds, Jonah! I am an expert...” He said, mysteriously before going back to his normal goofy grin. Jonah just chuckled awkwardly and looked back at Lily. “But yeah... It's okay to be scared, but.. be brave enough to punch fear right in it's teeth. That's all.” He said calmly, before standing up. Lily smiled at that and leans up to press her hand to rub her bandaged face. “Thanks guys...” 

Jonah began to search the campsite, looking around for something. “It's no problem... Wait, Something's wrong.” Lily looked confused and stood up as well, trying to look for what he was looking for. “The bodies were here... but now they're gone.” He murmured with confusion, but Erika quickly cleared that up. “The bodies turn to ash after you kill them, regardless of what they were before they transformed.” She explained, but after she said that, Jonah noticed the black piles of ash on the ground. “Oh... I guess that makes sense.” He said, Lily looked around and walked over to her sleeping bag. 

“Even if it's been crazy for the past hour or so, I think we should all try and get some sleep.” She explained to everyone, and they all agreed, slowly going back to sleep in their bags while still tired and sore, even with fear still in their hearts. 

Meanwhile, in the helicopter, Maria was having her open wound properly treated by a medic on board. “This seems pretty dangerous, the monsters are getting closer to town.” Said a technician with a face mask on, watching the teenage girl get patched up. She had other cuts on her face, and her legs. But those were nowhere near as bad as the gaping arm wound. The medic patching Maria's arm replied to the technician. “Yeah, we'll need to tighten patrols around the premises and scan more often if they can get this close via pure chance.” Maria sighed and leaned back against the cool steel seat she was resting in. 

The medic then turned to Maria. “Sadly, because this wound is caused by Rift fallen, it's pretty resistant to magic and might have to heal on it's own depending on how much gotten into your system. Maria just quietly nodded before hunching forward. She closed her eyes and felt herself slowly begin to pass out.

“She's lost consciousness, doctor. Is she alright?” The technician said, looking up at her. The doctor then lifted her hand to check the ECG strapped to her hand. “Blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen saturation are all at stable levels, she must have fell asleep from exhaustion.” The technician nodded. “Well good, I'd rather not see a little girl die while I'm in here.” He said, looking out the window as they saw the academy slowly close in on the horizon.

A pair of red eyes glared at her within the darkness, though they seemed much less like fire and more just like a calm shade of red. “Hey, I wanted to let you know that I'm really proud you risked yourself back there to help your friends...” Gale explained, Maria tried to speak but her voice actually came out with the same echo that his had, like she finally figured how to speak back to him in her dreams. “To be honest, I just wanted to kill as many as possible.” She explained, trying to push him off. “That isn't true.” He interjected. “I might not be able to read your mind or anything, but I could tell you did it to try and soften the load on everyone else.” He spoke with a hint of joy. 

 

“I was out of my damn mind, I shouldn't risk my back for others.” She replied coldly, but he just gave a quiet sigh. “It doesn't matter how you justify it, your actions will always be the same with or without context.” He retorted, Maria just in the silence of her own thoughts. “Just... Try not to be so suicidal next time. Your back is my back as well, if you go, I go too, and I don't want to see you constantly risking yourself.” Maria just growled in frustration. “Who do you think you are, my mother?” She snapped at him, but he just kept calm. “No, just someone who's concerned.” He responded. “That's right you're not, since you killed her and all.” She replied, clearly still not over what happened this morning. He sighed some, knowing that she will probably never move on past that. It was completely understandable he knew, but he still wanted to make some sense of amends. 

“I know... But I'm just telling you to stay strong.” He said, before fading into the black of her sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to show the ramifications of getting into fights and the consequence of injuries, fighting monsters is a serious prospect and I feel like a lot of series don't really show that being too headstrong can pretty much make you end up in Maria's position.


	9. The Golden Hour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After Maria gets removed from the exam, the rest of the 7 people in the exam band together to gather the relics inside a temple.

Chapter 9: The Golden Hour

Morgan, Robin and Florence approached the temple at the middle the evening, Robin in awe along with her little brother by how big and impressive it was. It looked at least a thousand years old, and had massive stone spires shooting nearly a hundred feet into the air. There was a massive but worn staircase at the front along with a cracked stone walkway. There were plants growing up and along the building, as it was clearly overgrown. The trio headed up the stairs as they talked with one another. “So, This is the temple? It looks kinda like crap...” Morgan said sardonically, approaching the front gate and met with a massive pair of stone slabs coated with various paintings. They were so faded that she couldn't even read them. 

Robin looked at her, walking up to the door as well and feeling her hands along it. “I have to say it's quite the contrary. It's amazing a building just made from stones and mortar has passed the test of time.” Morgan chuckled at that, placing her palms against the entrance of the door and pushing with all of her might. Yet the door didn't seem to budge. “I kind of wonder what this temple was for...” Florence wondered aloud. Robin leaned up to push the door along with Morgan, but even with their combined strength, it still wouldn't move. “Good question.” She said, between each push. “Maybe they prayed to their gods here.” She continued, turning around and pushing it with her shoulders and back instead. 

“Maybe this is where they keep all their dead.” Morgan said jokingly, pushing onto the door a little more. Florence quietly squeaked in fear from that, looking away from them both. “W-would they really keep all their dead in there?” He said, sounding strangely scared of finding spooky skeletons of some crap. Morgan just shrugged. “Hell if I knew, hurry up and help push already.” Florence blinked a couple of times before realizing that he probably did need to help. He ran up to the door and began to push on it as well. “This isn't working...” Florence said, defeated. Morgan shook her head and looked up at the big door. “How much you bet that we're idiots and one of those ancient writings on the wall says 'Pull the door, asshat.'” She said, amused. Reaching her hand into the crack and trying to pull it, though the doors seemed heavy and there was no way that would work. 

“Damn, I thought ancient societies would have a sense of humor.” She said, before Robin slid to the ground and sighed. “I didn't expect doors to give me the most trouble so far...” Robin said with a sigh, Morgan quickly giving up as well and leaning against the wall as Florence continued to push. “Any more of that and you'll get a hernia, kid.” Morgan snarked at him, rubbing her sore shoulder. He sighed and gave up as well. “Yeah... Seems like we'll need to wait until more people arrive.” 

They sat there, waiting for someone to arrive, when suddenly the small group of four appeared out of the forest, Lily was looking at the map as the rest of them arrived at the long staircase. “Shoot, I thought we would have got here first.” Erika said, with a tinge of disappointment compared to Jonah's pure joy. He grinned and pumped his fist. “Yeah! I knew we would get here second! Pay up, Erika!” He demanded jovially, Erika sighing and pulling a 10 geld note out of her pockets and handing it to him. “Pessimism is awesome!” He said, folding the note up and placing it in his back pant leg. 

Morgan walked down the staircase and observed all four of them as Robin climbed down the stairs just behind her. Florence still trying to push the door open entirely by himself like an idiot. “Looks like the gang's arrived.” Morgan said with a smirk, but Robin noticed something. “Where's Roth?” Robin asked, Lily folding up her map and revealing to the duo that her eye was bandaged over. “Maria got injured, she isn't here.” She said, walking past both Morgan and Robin and heading up the stairs, her voice oddly cold sounding.

Morgan shrugged her shoulders and walked back up the stairs along with her, Lily leaning onto the door and trying to push it open with Florence. Morgan just stood behind them both and watched with her arms crossed together.

“So princess, what happened to your face?” Morgan asked, Lily just leaned to push a shoulder against the door to see if it budged. “Nothing.” Lily responded, giving up on pushing the door open and looking at the taller black haired girl with her good eye. “Well, you didn't just wear that bandage because it looked cool.” Morgan said jokingly, trying to get her to explain herself. “My face got cut up, that's all.” Lily finally disclosed, Morgan shook her head and sighed. “Well ain't that a bitch.” She said, mockingly, Lily just frowned and watched as everyone else made it up the stairs. “We need to push this door open.” Lily said flatly, and everyone agreed and pressed against the wall shoulder to shoulder.

“Everyone ready?” Lily shouted, everyone began to push the heavy stone doors. Eventually, they began to creek and swing wide open, slamming against the walls of the temple so hard that there was a huge smashing sound that let loose a massive amount of dust into the air, obscuring everyone's view. Morgan pulled a bandanna out of her pocket and held up it over her mouth as she walked in to filter the air. It was dark and musty, and there was so much dust it was almost blinding. It quickly settled back onto the floor as everyone else began to walk inside. The place was dark with brown stone on the walls and ceiling, the dancing flames on the torches on each side of the huge entryway. 

“This place is Massive...” Florence said in awe, looking around as just how huge the main hall was. There were three paths, one that had a huge pair of double stone doors, though quite a margin smaller than the last ones. The other three ways were just hallways. Morgan walked up to the doors and kicked them open, another slam with a huge surge of dust flew up. But not enough to clog everyone's windpipes. 

“Look, I don't want to ruin the reunion or anything, but we're under a pretty strict time limit. We need to find these relics and be on our merry way.” Morgan explained, looking down the lit walls of the next chamber. Robin nodded and looked over to everyone else. “To be honest, she's right. We took enough time to get here and now we're closing in on 30 hours until the deadline. We have to make a move.” Robin added, as Morgan began to walk around the room, her claymore strapped firmly onto her back.

Jonah stepped up, looking around at everyone. “I think everyone should go with their partners, though since Maria isn't here, we have a lot of options to be honest.” Jonah explained, everyone watching him. “We either can go as one big group, which will be slower but less dangerous... Or we can go with our teammates, with one person going with another pair. “ He said, though Morgan cut him off while she was glaring at Lily, who was currently staring at the paintings on the wall. “Or one of us can go solo, and everyone else pairs up. It'll be the fastest.” She interjected. Jonah looked confused and stepped forward in protest. “That's pretty risky, Morgan. What if it's dangerous?” He implored, but Morgan shrugged him off. “It's dangerous in general and we all know it. Maria knew what she was getting into and she learned that as well.” Jonah sighed and shook his head. “Fine, but if you get hurt then don't blame me for it.” He said with a sigh, Robin walked up to Lily and began to speak to her quietly. 

“Would you like to accompany me?” Asked Robin, Lily nodded and quietly replied to her under her breath as well. “Yeah... Morgan made me want to pull my hair out. What about Florence?” She mentioned, Robin just looked at him while he spoke to Jonah about joining him as well. “I guess I'll just have to trust him” She replied, looking as Morgan left through the double doors. “We'll meet back here when we're finished.” 

“Let's make sure this is quick, Lily.” Robin said, leaving the other four on their own as they headed to the hallway to the west side of the room. The torches were lit on each side of the hall to signify that someone else had arrived before them to even light those matches. “The air in here is so musty...” Lily complained, the air was wet, dirty and stagnant and irritated her lungs. Robin gave a soft chuckle as they began to walk down the long hallway. Occasionally passing paintings and carvings in the stone walls telling messages of old they couldn't read.

“You call this musty? Heh... You should have seen my parents wine cellar.” Robin casually mentioned as she slipped her hands into the pockets of her waistcoat. “When I was down there, I wasn't sure if I was breathing air or pure cobweb and mold. I was coughing my lungs out for nearly a week.” She continued, Lily giving a little bit of a giggle. “Why were you in a wine cellar?” Lily inquired, Robin looked at her as she continued down the hallway, a small staircase leading further downward by a floor or two. “Oh, To get wine, of course.” Robin started, adjusting the spear strapped to her back a little bit. “I was kind of a rebel back when I was a teen. My parents haven't been in that cellar for years so it was pretty much stocked with tons of old vintage, I wanted to get a taste.” She said, stopping at a three way split. But she only noticed one of the ways had lit torches. 

“How did it taste?” Lily asked Robin, starting to walk down the firelit path as the indicator where they're supposed to be going. “Way more bitter than I was expecting... I thought it was just grape juice you got drunk on.” Robin said with her own friendly chuckle. “So uhm... What happened with you and Morgan?” Robin asked next, Lily looking at the dark torch lit floor. “Well...” Lily trailed a bit, before Robin quickly swung her hand out in front of Lily to stop her. “W-wha?” Lily asked, confused as Robin looked up at the ceiling. “Something's off..” Robin said, The area began to creak as dust seeped through the cracks of the roof. “Move, Now!” Robin said, diving forward as fast as she could, Lily stood confused, but followed her just afterward. Suddenly there was a loud rumble as a massive pile of stoned fell from the ceiling and crashed onto the floor. Along with that came a massive pile of mud on top of it, before finally seeing the sunlight seep through the damage.

“WHY DID THAT HAPPEN!?” Lily shouted at Robin, Robin looked up at it and sighed, standing back up and dusting herself off. “I'm guessing the roof just was at it's limit. Either that or the water from a recent rain” Robin theorized, sighing a little bit and offering her hand to Lily to help her stand up. “Hopefully that won't keep happening.” Lily said quietly, Robin nodded and they went back to walking. The hallway turned into a somewhat large room, possibly an old altar of some sorts to an old god, from the seats all facing a small shrine. 

Lily walked between the seats and up to the altar, looking at the little statues, two wooden carvings of a bird holding the moon, and a dragon holding the sun. “Wow... These are really cool. Do you think they're the Relics we were supposed to get?” Lily asked, Robin walked up and inspected them, grabbing one and lifting it up to inspect it. “It has a very thick layer of dust on it, The relics would only be placed here relatively recently.” Robin explained, as Lily put them in her backpack anyway. “Uhm... I wanted to paint them and put them in my window, sorry...” Robin laughed and pat her on the back of her shoulder. “Don't apologize to me! Whoever owned those are long past this world... Now let's go find the real relic.” Robin said with a smile as they left the altar room and headed down another hall. 

“So... About what happened with Morgan...” Robin continued. Lily looked up at her and sighed. “...It was because apparently me not knowing how bad off some people are means I don't care about them.” She disclosed, Robin nodding her head as she kept pace with her. “Well, Do you care about those people?” Robin asked, crossing her arms behind her back as she walked. 

“Of course!” Lily exclaimed, turning to her as she walked. “I do care... just sometimes I don't know how to actually help... Morgan suggested I do charity work or donations...” Robin nodded as Lily spoke, looking ahead to see a pit coming up. “Charity is a pretty good cause, though why was this an argument?” Robin asked, Lily shook her head. “I don't really know... She was right that charity is a good cause... But she started to guilt and insult me over it and she barely even spoke to me.” Lily explained, Robin shook her head and sighed. “That just seems like a clash of personality more than who is actually right.” She said, Lily sighed and nodded, before stopping just before the pit. 

“How are we gonna cross this?” Lily asked, Robin swiftly reached into Lily's backpack and pulled out the rope it had. “Hold onto this for dear life.” She said, looking down into the pit and noticing it went much farther than she expected. “HOW DEEP IS THIS THING?” She said, But Robin just bent down and peered into the hole. 

“It doesn't seem to go into a pit,” Robin observed, reaching down to rub the underside of the stone. “This is an underground lake. What's holding this building up?” She said, looking down and seeing the shimmering of the water reflect the soft glow of the torches nearly 50 feet down. “It might explain why the roof collapsed earlier, this entire building is shoddy...” Robin grabbed onto the rope and backed up as she spoke. “Seriously, hold onto this rope for dear life.” She repeated, Dashing swiftly past her and making a grand leap across the gap, landing perfectly on her feet before wrapping the rope around her arms several times. 

“Lily, jump.” Robin demanded bluntly, the hair on Lily's neck began to stand up, as she shivered and looked down the hole in fear. “A-are you serious? What if I slip...?” Robin looked sharply at her. “Don't slip, then.” Lily sighed and held tightly on the rope. “Seriously... Isn't there a better way?” She asked, Robin shaking her head in response. “Do you see another way? I sure don't. So, tally ho and fucking jump already!” She shouted, tugging the rope to coax her a little bit. 

She sighed and backed up, dashing forward and making a leap to quickly fall into the hole. She quickly wrapped the rope around one of her arms as she plummeted 50 feet, before suddenly the rope tensing around her arm and giving her massive rope burn. “AGH!” She shouted, feeling the rope dig into her arm, but she refused to let it slip from her hands. “You good?” Robin shouted down at Lily. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!” Lily shouted back up at her in pure fear of not having anything beneath her feet but dank cave water. “Okay, you're good.” Robin responded, slowly pulling the rope up to get her back up. Lily gripped onto the rope like her life depended on it, and Robin dragged her up all the way onto the other side. “Now that wasn't so bad, was it?” 

Lily was hugging her rope, shivering on the floor in a fetal position. “...Right then.” She said, slowly pulling the rope away from her and placing it back into her backpack. Lily stood up, still shivering out of pure fear of what just happened as she slowly followed Robin. “I could only habit one guess as to why there wasn't a foundation in that area.” Robin stated, Lily hugging onto her invisible air pillow that she somehow had. “Water erosion.” She finished, Lily looking at her with another shiver. “W-water erosion?” She inquired fearfully. 

Robin nodded and began to explain. “When water flows in an area, it cuts a swath to allow it to flow. It'll slowly whittle down wider and wider as the flow continues... A massive water flow caused all of the foundation to disappear. This could only mean one thing...” Robin deducted. “What would that be?” Lily wondered, the shivering slowly stopping as they turn a corner. “This place is a timebomb, and will collapse at any time.” Robin warned, Lily shrieked quietly again. “THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME FEEL BETTER!” She shouted, Robin sighing some.

“We need to be quick about this, I don't want to wait until this place comes crashing down.” Robin explained, picking up into a brisk jog to hurry up. Lily picking up the pace just behind her until they reached another pair of double doors. hey opened it and there was another area, a massive area with nothing in it except for a small pedestal. Atop the pedestal was a bright jade color statue with a pair of silver wings. They both approached it quietly and Lily picked it up. “This doesn't have dust on it... It was put here recently!” Robin smiled at Lily's joy, feeling some of her own as she held out her hand. “Good job, partner.” She said with a grin, Lily grabbing her hand and firmly shaking it. “T-thanks!” Lily said, turning around to head back to the door as they heard a growl. 

From the shadows, out walked a black mountain lion like monster, with bone like armor plating on it's back and face, and glowing red eyes. It wasn't any ordinary rift fallen mountain lion either, it was the size of a small car. It prowled toward them both and released a low growl. Lily and Robin both drew their blades as they saw it approach. “Oh god...” Lily quietly squeaked, holding her blade out and feeling her spine began to shiver. Suddenly the mountain lion pounced them both, swiping it's claw so hard that it caused a huge slash mark in the wall, even if it was nowhere near it. They both quickly ducked out of the way from it and watched it as it turned to Robin.

“It cut the wall without touching it!” Lily shouted. Robin held out her spear, ready for it to attack again. “That must be the power of Pulse...” She said, as it suddenly leaped at her. She spun her spear and caught it's claws in one swift movement, holding it back. “I AM NOT AFRAID OF A CAT!” She shouted at it's snarling face. Looking over to Lily as she struggled to hold it back. “JUMP ON IT, LILY!” She shouted. Lily nodded and leaped onto it's back. Robin ducked down so it went on the floor, before rolling out from underneath it. Lily shivered in fear but reared back to slash at it. She made a couple of slices on it's back and shoulder, jet black blood leaking from it as it growled and began to thrash around the room at full speed. Lily grabbed onto it's neck and ducked her head, shouting in fear as she kept trying to slash at it. 

“Over here... you rapscallion!” Robin shouted, from nearly across the entire room by quickly repositioning herself. The huge cat with Lily currently on it's back, it looked at her and growled before ducking into another dash. Rearing down and leaping up at full speed at her. His back tilted upward and Lily flew off, landing on her back as the big cat tried to pounce Robin. Robin slammed the hilt of her spear down into the stone and bent her spear forward, making her blade pierce his jaw, skull and entire head as it sunk lower onto the pole, his body slamming into the ground, dead. She quickly yanked her spear back with a grin. Lily walking over to grab the trophy. 

“That was awesome, Robin!” Lily exclaimed, holding the trophy over her head. Robin turned back and smiled, before noticing the ground began to rumble. Suddenly, the bricks under her feet began to slide and drop. Robin dashing and stumbling away as the huge cat fell through the bricks in the floor, along with half of the room as all that was left was a huge gaping hole where they could see the underground lake. Another huge heap of dust stirring in the air. “IS THIS ENTIRE PLACE COLLAPSING?!” Lily shouted out of panic. Robin grabbed her by the arm and slowly began to sidle along the side of the wall back to the door. Both of them walking as another couple of bricks fell into the water.

Once they were finished, they felt another Rumble. “COME ON!” Robin shouted, breaking out into full speed as they exited the room. They dashed along the hallway and Robin took another full leap across the huge gap. Lily stopping just short as she panicked. “ROBIN, THE ROPE!” She shouted at Robin, Robin shook her head, got in her knees and held her hands out. “NOT ENOUGH TIME, GRAB MY HAND!” Robin shouted back.

Lily gulped and made a running leap across the gap, and Robin snatched her hand before she fell. Robin quickly pulled her up, The bricks falling away as they both stood and ran away from the collapsing side of the temple. Finally, they managed to outrun the collapse, panting and leaning up against the walls of the hallways as they caught their breath. “How did you learn to do that, Robin...?” She asked quietly, Robin looked up at her with a tired grin. “House Goldshore always teaches their family members how to fight.” She replied, standing back up as they walked back to the entrance.

“So... are you still royalty, Robin?” Lily asked, Robin shook her head and sighed. “No, when the government of Rosewall was established by the people, we lost all of our rights to our fiefdom and became defunct. We still had some money left in the manor's inherent value along with the gold ingots we had. We're called 'goldshore' for a reason, back in the day we had tons of gold, but our reserves are now meager, at best..” Robin explained, Lily nodding her head some as she spoke.

“Does that bother you?” Lily asked, not entirely sure just what to actually say. Robin shook her head and smiled at her. “It's bothered some of my family members that we lost the right to our land, but I want to be remembered by my whole name and not my last.” She said with a brave grin, Lily smiled back at her as they returned to the entrance of the temple. In the middle of the room sat Morgan. Her blade coated in black blood as she gently played with her trophy. Which was a pair of deer horns on a similar jade color trophy. She looked up at them both and stood up.

“Took you long enough, Did you explode or something on your way back?” Morgan asked Robin and Lily. But Lily walked away instantly from Morgan to lean against a nearby wall, still clearly not on any speaking terms with her. “Not exactly. But if it's any condolence, that entire area is currently sitting at the bottom of a lake along with the corpse of a massive panther.” She said flatly, Morgan gave a chuckle and sighed. “Sounds like a party.” She commented, sitting back down. “I got to fight a bunch of bats, had to cleave them out of mid air. The good thing was at least it wasn't too far from the entrance.” Morgan replied, giving a yawn and waiting for the other groups to arrive.

“I wonder what's taking them.” Morgan wondered, Robin sitting next to her as they both waited. “Well, I know Jonah still has to get his, Florence is helping him with that. And then there's Erika and Gabriel...” She said, turning to the hallway they were supposed to come back from. But sadly, they weren't on cue. 

“Damn, I thought that was going to work.” Morgan commented, but after a couple more minutes both Erika and Gabriel arrived. Gabriel pumping the trophy in his hand a couple of times, this one was a pair of claws. “Woo! Did it! That was super easy” He shouted, looking at the three others in the room. “Uhh... Did something explode? While we were heading back we heard something crazy.” Erika wondered. Robin gave a chuckle and stood up, wiping her blade off on the ground from blood. “We came across some opposition and a tiny bit of the temple collapsed into an underground lake because of it. Did you have any trouble getting yours?” 

Gabriel shook his head as he went to sit with the others. “Nope, it was just A REALLY LONG HALLWAY.” Erika nodded to confirm this. “Seriously, that was one really long hallway... I got so bored by how long that hallway was. I think we might have traveled through the core of the planet at one point.” Morgan shrugged and yawned a bit, walking to the front door and pushing it open to see that the sun was beginning to set. The orange sky of the evening air becoming much more prevalent. “Damn, it looks like we'll need to hurry.” 

 

Finally, Jonah and Florence showed up, black blood drenching both of their bodies as they panted, Jonah walking over to the rest of the group and coughing. “Just for reference, I now hate spiders more because I saw one the size of a small van...” He said, panting. Florence placed his bow onto his back and nodded. “Yeah... It was kind of a hard fight.” Florence agreed, but then he pulled out the trophy which was a fang. “We did it though!” He said with a smile, Robin walked up to him and gave him a hug. “Splendid job!” She exclaimed, before Morgan began heading out the front door.

“Come on, do we even get a break first!?” Jonah exclaimed, placing his hands on his knees and hunching over to catch his breath. “There's no time, we need to hurry back to the meeting point or else we won't get the promotion to the main roster.” She said, Everyone else standing up and following her down the stairs. “You people are nuts...” Jonah said with frustration, before realizing he was entirely by himself.

“Oh damn it...” He said to himself, before tiredly jogging out of the entrance and down the stairs to follow them. “At least wait for me!” He shouted. Chasing after the group of six who left him behind.


	10. Burning Bridge

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria, fresh from the hospital for a second time, gets a visit from her sister as they discuss something important.

Chapter 10: Burnt Bridge

Maria stood in front of the sliding doors to the infirmary as they slid open, stepping through and back out into the main campus. She lifted her arm, which was currently wrapped up with a thick bandage underneath her clean white dress shirt. “I really need to stop coming here.” She commented quietly to herself as she slowly began to walk down the stairs and past the campus. Gale manifested on her shoulder as she spoke. 

“Well, stop getting hurt all the time.” He commented, Maria scoffed at that and shook her head. “It's not like I can help that or anything” She replied, lightly stretching her arm and shoulder out. “Well... I'm not entirely sure fighting five wolves in a boxing match is something you couldn't avoid.” Maria shook her head and began to walk up to the fountain, dipping her hand into the clean flowing water and gently splashing it on her face. 

“Maria? They let you out already?” Said a voice approaching her from just behind. She stood up to face them, realizing it was her older sister and instructor, Sienna. Her light blue eyes peering at her and her face somewhat blank looking. Maria lifted her hand and showed off her bandaged arm. “I should be good as long as I keep the bandages clean.” Maria explained, gently reaching down to rub on it though. “It seriously hurts, though.” She commented, crossing her hands under her arms and looking at Sienna, who still just looked a bit cold. 

“So, Shouldn't you be checking to see if the rest of the team is back yet?” Asked Maria, but Sienna just shook her head. “I check on them every hour, on the hour” She countered, looking to the watch on her left wrist. “I also have their GPS location on my laptop near the return point, according to this they'll be about 3 hours earlier than the deadline.” Sienna explained, placing a hand on her waist and leaning to one foot, her wavy red hair gently being blown to a mess by the gusts of summer winds. 

“Ohhhh... Alright. To be honest with you, I just want to get to training already.” Maria said with some call enthusiasm. Getting into the reason why she was really here was kind of exciting for her. Even under her cool exterior she'd be giddy like a schoolgirl if it didn't look stupid to be giddy. But Sienna's frown just plunged a little deeper from that. “Yeah... About that.” She trailed on, looking away from her. “Can we meet in your dorm room?” Sienna asked from nowhere, Maria was taking slightly aback by it. “Uhh... Sure, If you tell me why.” Sienna looked down and shook her head.

“This is private, And I don't want anyone else to hear it. Your dorm room is ideal” Sienna commented, but Maria just shrugged her shouldered and began to walk to her dorm, Sienna trailing just behind her. Usually they would strike up a conversation while they were together, just like when they were younger. But this time was different, both of them seemed uncomfortable around the other just enough to remain in silence as they walked up the stairs and into Maria's shared dorm. She looked at the walls and dresser and noticed that everything looked cleaned up and repaired. 

“By the way, We had all of the damages to this dorm stripped from your paycheck.” Sienna stated, and Maria suddenly switched from neutral to frustrated. “Are you kidding me?” Sienna shook her head and walked over to the curtain, rubbing her fingers along the draping. “This is silk; it's actually pretty pricey, so we had to take away your whole supplemental check for this month to pay for it. Everything else was public property, and you pay for anything you damage while you stay here.” She stated flatly, looking at her frustrated little sister patiently. 

 

“Really? People can just take money away from me like that?” She said, angrily glaring at her and stomping her foot lightly on the hardwood floor. “What am I supposed to do for lunch, or if I need to replace my jacket? Like.. you know.. how I have to replace my jacket.” Sienna just closed the new drapes and turned around to look at her, shrugging her shoulders. 

“And who the hell uses silk for the drapes of A DORM ROOM? I thought dorms were supposed to be budget.” Maria complained, gesturing with her hand as she did. “When you want it to actually look respectable,” Sienna answered, before continuing on as she walked over to shut the door, locking it with a twist before heading back to address her. “Money here isn't going to be a problem here for you, Maria.” Sienna forebode, shaking her head a little bit. Maria looked confused and leaned onto her back foot, her face looking puzzled.

“What do you mean by that? Don't be so vague with me.” Maria reprimanded, crossing her arms a little tighter from feeling uncomfortable. Sienna gently walked over to the closet and pulled it open. “I had your weapon confiscated as of yesterday.” She stated, Maria looking down and furrowing her brow in agitation. “Okay, now you're just trying to fuck with me.” She commented flatly, clearly annoyed by how her sister was acting. 

“That leaves me to what I wanted to talk about.” Sienna said, closing the closet doors and walking up closer to her. “Why are you here?” She asked, Maria stared at her in confusion, looking at the wall before peering back to her. “You know why I'm here, Sienna.” Replied Maria, Sienna just glared at her and sighed. “No, Why are you actually here? I want to hear it come from your mouth.” She stated calmly, her brow lowered with a frown on her face. 

“I came here to fight Riftfallen; I want to kill as many as I can.” Maria replied, but Sienna didn't look relieved. “That isn't good enough” Replied Sienna, frowning at Maria as she just stared at her with a feeling of uneasiness. “What do you mean that's not good enough?” Maria asked, furrowing her brow and gripped more into the sleeves of her shirt. Sienna walked up and grabbed Maria by the shoulders, looking at her.

“This isn't a game, Maria. You're going to be putting your life on the line every single day by being here. And for what? So you can kill some things?” Sienna observed, her voice tinged with agitation. “I joined this academy to protect the people I love. People who come here need that compassion and bravery in their heart are the ones who deserve to be here.” She continued, but Maria just glared sharply at her. “It doesn't fucking matter the reason for why I'm here, all that matters is I do my job.” She argued, now upset at her sister as she spoke.

Sienna sighed and let go of her shoulders, looking away from her as she spoke. “Yeah, you seem to be doing a great job. Ending up in the hospital twice in two weeks before even doing anything for anyone else besides yourself.” Sienna said scolding, Maria growled slightly and shook her head. “Wow, screw you.” She commented, but Sienna just cut her off. 

“I don't want you waltzing into something you don't understand. You just joined here and you're not even old enough to watch a movie by yourself, how in the hell do you expect me to think you're making a mature decision for once?” Asked Sienna, Maria biting her lower lip slightly and looking away from her. “I know what I'm doing, Sienna. I've been preparing for this for years now.” Maria muttered, but Sienna just continued to glare at her.

 

“I hardly believe that.” Sienna remarked, shaking her head and crossing her arms over one another on her chest. Maria clenched her fists and tilted her head. “What would our parents think of you if they knew you were going to were going to do something this dangerous every day of your life?” Sienna asked, but Maria's glare just grew even sharper, her hands beginning to shake from a quiet fury. “They wouldn't care. They're fucking dead... Dead people can't think.” Barked Maria, but Sienna just closed her eyes and shook her head.

“You don't believe me, do you?” Maria asked sarcastically, Sienna went back to glaring at her, much more upset than before. “No, I just don't think you're ready for this.” Sienna snapped back quietly, Maria quickly flipping her the middle finger for a brief second before replying. “Who gave you the right to choose what I am ready for? I chose to come here and I'm staying. You can't do anything about that.” Maria responded, but Sienna grabbed her by the collar of her dress shirt and pulled her closer. “I'm giving you your ultimatum, Maria.” Sienna said, now visibly angry, her light blue eyes looking as sharp and cold as ice.

“You are nothing but a liability for my team, from what I've saw of you so far I only have one guess as to what's going to happen to us. You're going to get someone killed, be it yourself or one of your teammates... You're going to make someone get killed with your ignorance and blatant disregard for your own safety. Get off my team, or I'll make you get off.” Sienna demanded of Maria, who was just looking very confused.

“And where the hell did all this come from?” Asked Maria, Sienna not letting go of her shirt as she spoke to her. “I made you my pupil so I can watch over you and help take care of you, because I thought you could use the emotional support after all that happened. And yet all I've seen is you be a suicidal idiot who can't even go a week without injuring herself. It's obvious you have something wrong with you.” Sienna remarked, Maria just keeping quiet as she looked at her.

“You should go back to your boarding school and live a normal life. Graduate, find some work, and settle down with someone you like; You'll live longer for it.” Sienna suggested to Maria dismissively, Maria just glared at her even more. “And why do you get to pick that for me?” Maria growled at Sienna, before grabbing her hands and pushing her away. “You fuckin' don't. And no one else can either, if I have a death wish like you say I do then just let me do as much as I can before I get ran through.” She said, glaring at her and looking away.

“I'm not giving you a choice in the matter. I'm going to report you to the counselors if you don't quit.” Maria suddenly jerked back, looking surprised before getting even more furious. “You did.. WHAT?!” She snapped, stomping her foot and gritting her teeth. Sienna just nodded. “Yeah, and if you can't pass their psych exam, you'll never step foot in this academy again.” She explained, Maria grabbing her by her shirt and shouting at her. “Why would you do that!?” She shouted, Sienna just looked at her calmly. “I'd rather have you hate me than knowing that your death will be my responsibility. This is entirely for your protection.” She explained. Maria throttled her coat in her hands, giving her a shake. “You're really gonna do something underhanded like that just to sell me out? Call them off, right now!” She loudly demanded, but Sienna just gently pulled her away from grabbing her.

“Nothing you're going to do is going to make me change my mind, Maria.” Sienna explained, crossing her arms and just watching how she responds. “I just don't want you to die just because of what happened to mom and dad affecting your psyche. I couldn't live with it.” Sienna said, her anger turning into sadness as she waited for Maria to respond.

Maria reared back her hand and slapped Sienna as hard as she could across the face with a loud crack, Sienna's face twisting to the side and making her look at the floor. The slapped cheek feeling a warm sting as it turned red. “FUCK. YOU.” Maria barked at her. “You can't just fucking control my life like that.” She said, her hands shaking from realizing she just bitch slapped her own sister. “If you really want me gone.. Then I'm fucking done here. Just don't expect anything from me ever again.” She continued, but Sienna just stared at the floor, the hand print becoming visible on her face. 

“This entire place is a joke, and you're a fucking joke too.” Maria ranted, walking to the door and swinging it open. “Later, bitch...” She said before slamming the door and storming away. Sienna just reached up to wipe off a tear coming down from one of her eyes, before taking a deep breath and looking at her wrist watch. It was just before 11 AM, she needed to go check on the rest of her students.   
She walked to the door and quietly opened it, heading down the hallway with her hands placed in her pockets, heading down the staircase and out the front door onto the sidewalk. Looking around to see Maria slowly walking off to the front gates, her head sunken downward. She sighed and walked the other way and back to the top of the hill where the entrance of the forest was. 

“There you are!” Shouted Jonah, who was sitting on the grassy hill and rubbing on an aching shoulder. “Yep... I'm here” Sienna replied, noticing that everyone had arrived at roughly the same time, some were standing and some were sitting. “Did we make it on time?” Asked Lily, bandages still wrapped on her face. Sienna nodded some. “Yep, you made it about three hours early.” she said calmly. Jonah wanted to pump his fist in excitement, but as soon as he tried to stand up, he just fell over again from being too tired. “Oh... I want to go tell my bed that I love her.” Jonah commented while yawning, stretching his back to help relieve the pain. Morgan chuckled and shook her head, Sienna shrugging her shoulders.

“Well you all know what this means.” Said Ashley, walking up the hill to meet Sienna and everyone else. “You are all official Slayers for Spectrum academy! I hope all of you are proud of yourselves, you should be.” Everyone smiled at that, as Morgan helped Jonah onto his feet and kept him stable. “You will all get your licenses up at the front desk. And then you can start setting up your schedule around your elective classes.” Ashley explained, adjusting her hair to get out of the way of her only good eye. 

“Electives? What are those?” Asked Jonah, trying to get back on his own two feet without the help of Morgan. “Electives are classes you can pick out for yourself when you're not doing combat training. It helps break the monotony and even gives you college credits!” Ashley explained, Sienna gently rubbing the red from her cheek while no one was paying attention. “Are there any examples of what kind of classes we can pick from?” Asked Lily, Sienna sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “They're in the booklets you get at the front desk, us explaining it is just going to be redundant.” She admitted, Lily nodding some as they tried to rest from the 3 day venture. 

“I also suggest you get some food while you're at it. Unless you went hunting, you starved yourselves for nearly 3 days.” Ashley added, and Gabriel rubbed his stomach. “It's weird... I wasn't hungry until we were done.” Gabriel added, standing up to stretch out his arms and yawn. Lily looked around Sienna and was puzzled by Maria's absence. “Hey, Sienna?” She asked, Sienna turned her head to face. “Hm?” She responded. “Where is Maria?” Lily questioned, but Sienna just turned around and began to walk off. “She quit, I'm going back to my room... So talk just among yourselves and eat your food.” 

Lily looked shocked from the sudden development, talking louder to try to get her attention. “Hey! Wait! You didn't say why!” She yelled, but Sienna didn't reply, just quietly heading back to her room.  
“Why would she quit...?” Lily asked to no one in particular, clearly saddened as she stopped trying to chase after her. Jonah walked up behind her and placed his hand onto her shoulder. “That doesn't seem right... It looked like to me she was pretty excited to be part of the academy.” He admitted, she nodded and sighed as they walked off to get their lunches and their wounds patched up.

Sienna began to slowly walk down the walkways and back to her own dorm, a small one bed dorm room with an entire wall devoted to a huge shelf of books. She walked over to a dresser and picked up one of the framed photos. It was Maria, herself and the rest of their family when they were younger. Maria was only 11 when this picture was taken, it was the day before Sienna went off to train at Spectrum back when she was 16. 

To be honest, she noticed that Maria actually looked a lot more like her mother than she did, since she took more after their father. Maybe it was the less curly red hair and the more rounded facial features. She lifted the photo and pulled out her rolling chair to take a seat in it, staring deep at the photo as she sat down quietly. She began to remember all the times back when they were younger. She was always a bit overbearing to her sister, as Maria always had the habit of trying to do what all the adults did. She chuckled a little when she remembered when Maria tried to cook her own dinner while dad was at work. 

She accidentally lit the eggs on fire because she used too much oil, and then as soon as the fire was put out. She wanted to do it again because she was super determined to 'doing it right', which caused another fire. She was grounded for two whole weeks and wasn't allowed in the kitchen again until mom replaced the stove. Whenever she got homework, she would do all of it herself without ever asking any questions to anyone else because she thought helping would mean she was stupid. She failed a couple of tests but eventually got pretty good at doing it herself.

Sienna sighed and hugged the photo gently to her chest, but soon her concentration was broken when the door was pulled open. “Hey there, Sienna.” Ashley said, Sienna looked up at her and placed the photo back onto the dresser. “Did you need something?” Asked Sienna, suddenly donning her mask of professionalism. “Yeah, I just wanted an answer to something.” Ashley asked, she kind of guessed what was coming next. 

“Why did Maria quit?” She inquired, which was the exact thing that Sienna was expecting to happen. Sienna just sighed and looked at the floor in defeat. “I forced her out of the team.” She replied, which Ashley frowned at that response. Ashley was actually Sienna's instructor before she became one herself, and Sienna knew that what that face meant. “Why?” She replied, as Sienna tried her best to explain.

“Just... I haven't seen her conscious since our parents died. It seems like she's stopped caring about her own safety and I thought I could protect her by making her leave the academy.” She explained, looking at the floor with a feeling of guilt. “How did she take it?” Ashley asked, Sienna looked up at her and took a short breath. “She slapped me in the face and hates my guts.” Ashley frowned even more as Sienna replied, shaking her head a bit. “Do you feel like you made a good call?” She questioned, but Sienna just closed her eyes and sighed. 

“I don't really know.” Sienna admitted, placing her hand onto the dresser to lean her weight onto it. “I miss my parent's too... but I just don't know any other way to keep Maria out of danger.” She continued, looking at Ashley as she just observed. “I wish things were easier...” She admitted, but Ashley nodded her head and walked up to place a hand on her shoulder. 

“It'll be fine, I'll see what I can do about this.” Ashley reassured, before walking out the door and closing it gently behind her. Sienna walking over to her bed and laying down on it to just try and fall back asleep, even if it was only the middle of the day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I liked the idea that maybe the first team you get just doesn't work out for various reasons. Maria has been reckless and a bit crazy, so she gets punished for it.


	11. Downpour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Maria has been unceremoniously removed from her team, she starts to wander about the streets of her home as she learns more of herself, and her inhabitant, Gale.

The clouds began to fill the sky and darken as rain began to pour and wet the streets and sidewalks of downtown Riverside, the rainfall was heavy enough to cause nearly an inch of rain within the hour. Maria walked across a crossroad as she silently padded through the streets through town. Gale manifested on a shoulder as he spoke to her, her hair and shirt becoming wet from the rain. “Where are you going?” He asked, Maria sighed and took a turn on a sidewalk, watching as the traffic turned their headlights on for more visibility.

“Still figuring that out.” Maria responded, her voice seemed weaker than before. Almost like her will was chipped away and she was actually a bit hurt by that entire thing. “Well.. you should find a place out of the rain, you'll get sick.” He replied calmly, Maria looking at the wet sidewalk as ripples of raindrops smacked against it at full speed. “I don't think I care at the moment, Gale.” She stated, taking another turn and walking from the city area and more into the suburbs. 

“Well... okay. I just wanted to warn you.” He meekly replied, Maria gave a light nod and continued on her way. She walked down that one road until she saw a parking lot. She walked up to it and observed the sign sitting in a patch of grass where the sidewalk would normally be. It said 'Rivercrest Boarding School” carved into the black painted wood, gently tracing her fingers along the letters before walking over to a wall to lean on it. Using the small walkway overhead to block the rain. “This was the school I lived at when I got out of the hospital.” She quietly spoke to Gale, he nodded and looked up at it, the bricks it was made of were very bland and gray, with the occasional wooden or metal fixture to break up the monotony of beige. 

“It's not really the best looking place...” He observed, Maria nodded and walked under the walkway around the school to a nearby oak tree. She gently rubbed her hands around the bark of the tree until she found a much smoother spot. She walked around it and saw the bark chipped away to show the smooth wood underneath, slightly dented inward. “Yeah... This place isn't for rich kids, I was nowhere close to being one.” She said before standing on her toes with a couple of light bounces. She balled her fists together and began smacking her fists into the tree with quick, snapping blows while she spoke. 

“This was the tree I always practiced my punches at.” She said, quietly counting her punches between when she spoke. Landing a quick combo on it before dipping away with quick foot movements. “Why did you practice on a tree?” Asked Gale, watching her and gently flapping in the air to keep himself aloft. “I went to a boxing class for a week when I went here,” Maria replied, quickly spinning away and landing a back fist into the tree that was hard enough to knock some leaves loose. “I couldn't afford the lessons, but I knew the basics. I wanted to replicate the heavy bags they let me train at, so I used a tree.” She said, stopping her boxing and looking at her not bandaged hand. Looking at the old healed over scars and rough, calloused skin on her knuckles and back of her fingers. 

“It tore my fists to hell, I remember always cutting them open when I was done practicing. I learned to tape them up to not make the damage as bad, but the damage was still done.” She explained, he nodded some and chuckled. “You must have really enjoyed this boxing thing.” She nodded and sighed, crossing her hands under her arms and trying to shrug off the cold she was feeling from the water. “Yeah... I always watched boxing on TV when I was younger. People would always change it to kid shows but I was always wanting to watch the 12 round title fight instead. Also, kid shows suck.” Maria quietly mused to herself. Gale just listening as she spoke. She was so angry earlier, but she seemed different than before. Like she was much more vulnerable than her normal grumpy self.

“I was so happy when Lily took me to see a boxing match on my 12th birthday, the ticket keeper was iffy on it because we were both so young, but he lightened up as soon as he heard her name. It was kind of the benefit of being friends with someone who's well known, even if it was only her last name.” She said, feigning a soft laughter of amusement before it just turned back into a sulking frown. 

“So why did you come here of all places?” Asked Gale, Maria looking at him and shrugging her shoulders, turning away and beginning to walk down the road. “I don't know, it's not closed or anything. I just... need more time to think.” She admitted, she felt lost inside at the moment and wasn't sure what she was even doing. “I guess that makes sense...” He agreed, flying along side her as she got more and more soaked from the rain. Her dark red hair was beginning to get drenched and cover more of her face from her keeping her head down. 

“So... Can you tell me about your parents?” He asked timidly, knowing it was kind of a hot button topic for her, he knew what he took away from her life. Maria just walked in silence for a few minutes, and he felt uncomfortable. He was going to apologize, but Maria began to quietly speak. “Lorrie was really sweet. She knew I had trouble getting friends when I was in school, but she always encouraged me to go out and talk to people. I thought she was being pushy, but I realized that she just didn't want me to be alone all the time.” She responded, putting her hands in her pockets to try and quell the feeling of the late summer rain. 

“It's why I became friends with Lily. I was like 8, Some guys were beating her up and calling her names and all I did was stand up to them and tell them to back off. They beat me up for it, but Lily was so upset someone she didn't know went up and took one in the face for her instead.” Maria quietly explained, looking along the road and scanning left and right for something as she spoke. “She was kind of strict on me, but that was only because I was doing something stupid. Like when I tried to climb on the house. She yelled at me and I ended up falling right off.” He giggled a little at that, she looked at him with a small sense of amusement as she walked closer to something. 

“Mike... He was fine for a dad. He didn't really like to talk about himself much, and he usually was at work or asleep when I came from school. I haven't heard her or dad argue that much unless it was over something stupid, like who got the remote that evening.” She replied, looking ahead as she saw the local graveyard approaching from a distance. “I have some questions as well.” Maria commented, looking up at the transparent orange phoenix floating it's way along with her in the rain. “And that would be?” He said, looking at her with his glowing garnet eyes. 

“What are the rules for your uh... occupation? Where do you go when you aren't here?” She asked, putting her cold, wet hands into her pant pockets. “My eyes and ears are your own when I'm not manifested. I decided to leave your thoughts to your own out of respect.” Maria narrowed her eyes and glared at them, feeling confused. “Out of respect?” She questioned, he looked at her and sighed softly. “I'm not trying to plan anything, so you'll have my full disclosure.” He admitted calmly, his voice did seem wholesome as he explained. “I technically am possessing your body. And I could make my consciousness overwrite yours unless you tried to push me back.”

Maria suddenly opened her eyes wide, glaring up at him and clenching one of her fists. “Are you kidding me!? I was in danger all this time!?” She shouted at him, pointing an accusatory finger even though to everyone else, she was probably yelling at the air and nothing else. “It's a pretty risky situation, but honestly I just want to continue to exist, but I don't want to fight you for it.” He clarified, looking a little sad as he spoke. “I took enough things away from you in a fit of rage, I don't want to take your livelihood as well.” 

Maria furrowed her brow, he seemed honest, but she felt like she only had more questions raised than answered. “What's your angle?” She said in suspicion, he just looked at her as they walked. “My... angle...? I don't follow.” He spoke, confused. He might have based his knowledge on some of what Maria knew, but his speech was a bit antiquated to know what she meant. “You could have my body as yours if you wanted, but you chose to let me be myself. What do you get out of any of this?” Maria asked, feeling a bit irritated by the sudden revelation. 

“Atonement.” He replied briefly, hoping it would be enough for her to understand.

Maria gritted her teeth and glared up at him. “You know, Repentance isn't going to undo how much my life got fucked up by you, Gale.” Maria snapped at him, The bird's eyes showing more anger when he replied. “When the body I became the host of was killed, I had many options. I could have just passed on into the ether, not knowing what was beyond. I could have taken over your body in a somewhat easy feat and do as I wished with no one to inhibit me. Did I pick either option? No. It was MY choice be a manifestation, unable to affect the world around me and watch as you suffer every day for a mistake that I made.” He declared, his voice somewhat indignant. 

“This isn't irony, or destiny, or prophecy. No, this is a punishment. A burden I gave myself in hope that one day that you could forgive me, but only after I can forgive myself. And you know what, Maria? It's a pain I am willing to bear because I know deep down inside that you're hurting more than you've been letting on, I know because I've spent every minute of your life with you since that event. But I will see this through, I want only to see you move on with your life knowing that what I've done is truly past you.” He added, Maria just staring up at him, feeling unsure of herself. She didn't know how to reply. 

“So what is my angle?” He asked, hypothetically. “I hate myself, but want to live long enough to see you happy. That is my angle.” He finished his rant, but Maria just gazed at the floor, unsure of herself as she made it to the entrance of the local graveyard. It was small and filled with concrete pathways between each gravestone, though the graves were so small it was probably all just ashes instead of caskets. 

Maria walked inside and walked along the pathways, gravestones left and right of her on each side as she quickly glanced over the names. “Why are we here?” Asked Gale, Maria turned to stop, looking at two pairs of gravestones next to each other. “I've never visited my parents before since they... left.” Maria explained, leaning down to read the tombstones in the rain. One said 'Laurette Judith Roth' the one beside it said 'Michael Blake Roth'. Maria crouched down and lightly traced her fingers along the names in the stoned, closing her eyes and giving a sad sigh. “Yep... Seems like the place” Maria said, placing her other hand on one of her knees as she looked at the name. 

“Do you miss them?” Gale asked her, hovering just behind her as she watched. “Yeah, no thanks to you.” She said, glaring back at him for a second before returning to just staring at both tombstones. Gale just sighed and let her do what she wanted to. “Hey, if I asked you not to listen to me, would you do it?” She asked out of nowhere, but the bird seemed befuddled. “Uh... Why?” Gale questioned, but Maria looked up at him. He gave up and sighed once again. “Alright, I'm just going to ignore whatever you're about to do.” He conceded, floating off a couple of feet from her and just looking at trees.  
Maria leaned up and stared at the gravestone of her mother as she spoke. “Hey, mom... I'm really sorry I haven't come here before.” She spoke, knowing that no one was going to reply.

 

“I know you don't really believe in this kind of thing, I don't either. But well.. if that huge rift in the sky stands for something... I guess it means anything can happen at this point.” Maria admitted, before reaching up to wipe a tear from her eye. She tried to keep her composure and expression as she spoke. “I feel pretty terrible for not showing up before... I guess I just didn't want to admit any of this was real.” Maria said, closing her eyes and hugging her own knees as the rain continued to pour on top of her.

“I miss you n' dad every day, you know... ” Maria admitted, her voice cracking as she gripped onto the side of the tombstone. “Sienna does too, but shes too focused on me being a complete fuck-up to actually tell anybody. I know I pretty much have nothing important in my life at this point, but I'll manage for as long as I can... for your sake.” She shook her head and sighed, standing back up. “I'll come here more often, I promise you both. I just.. feel bad I never spent time to get to know either of you. I was always too busy with something stupid and childish...” Maria mused, She crossing her arms, looking at the bloody bandage just under her sleeve. She must have broken it open from boxing that old tree a little while back. 

“Y'know... now that I think of it, I don't think I've made much progress from doing stupid and childish shit.” She shook her head, looking at Gale and watching him try to count how many leaves were passing by. “I should cut this short, I'm getting really goddamn cold.” She admitted, she was completely soaked from the rain and the wind was starting to pick up and it was giving her the chills. She turned away and walked back to the entrance as Gale began to follow her. “I'm not entirely sure they could hear you, Maria.” He commented, Maria quickly glaring up at him dismissively. “S-sorry.” He apologized, looking away from realizing what he just said. 

Maria took a deep breath and paused, turning back to walk back to the boarding school before she heard a loud honk sound. It was so loud it caused her to jump and spin on her heels, a van idling in front of her with it's low beams on. The window rolled down and a hand gestured to come in. Maria looked pensive, but approached the window. In the window was Ashley, her long black rough hair and eye patch over one of her eyes as she inspected Maria. 

“Well you look like you're having fun.” She commented sarcastically, Maria was soaked to the bone, her hair a short wine colored wet mop covering her eyes, bloodshot from holding back tears welling in her eyes in her attempt to be tough, the rest of her so wet like she looked like she crawled her way from a swimming pool after spending an hour underwater. “Yeah. Fun.” Maria said deadpan, barely holding back her exasperation. “So why are you here?” Asked Maria, suspicious of why Ashley would be there. “Get inside already, I want to speak with you.” She replied with a request, Maria sighed and walked around to the other side of the modern black van, pulling the door open and taking a seat. 

Since it was a new car, it was pretty well furnished. A full functioning electronic readout and dashboard combo that had those fancy touch pad things Maria saw in car magazines. Though, the interior was completely filled with beige coloring on every wall, even if it was warm, dry and snug... It was still beige and Maria felt petty about the whole situation. Ashley shifted the gearbox and the car slowly began to roll forward as she released the brake. 

“So why are you here?” Asked Maria, watching out of the window of the car as the rain got swept away by the windshield wipers almost hypnotically. “I'm taking you back to Spectrum.” Ashley explained, spinning the wheel to go around a corner. Maria became confused, looking up at her. “Why? Sienna jumped down my throat that I wasn't fit for it.” Maria stated, Ashley looking at Maria as she slowed down for a red light.

“I don't answer to her, I'm making this decision on my own.” Ashley replied, looking at Maria as she spoke. “It's true that how you've been preforming isn't what Spectrum wants out of you, but Sienna took the easy way out... She gave up on you.” Ashley explained, it stung Maria to hear that, so she began to look out of the window. “But I feel like that isn't the way we do things in this academy. We take people's flaws and we polish them until away they're talented upstarts worthy of protecting people.” Ashley said with a gusto, but Maria just scoffed at it with a brief laugh. “And did you read that out of a pamphlet?” 

“No, I'm being legitimate. I feel like you just need some work to make you something better, Sienna is wrong.” Ashley countered, Maria looking at her with some sense of anxiousness. “What makes you say that?” Ashley chuckled and ruffled Maria's wet head. “Well, I was kind of like you when I was your age... I had a chip on my shoulder and constantly expected everyone to respect me, even if I was a brat who made hasty decisions all the time.” Ashley explained, Maria narrowing her eyes and pouting at her since she took offense to some of those comments. 

“But... My instructor didn't throw me on the street, He ran my ass into the ground; Made me work until I pretty much didn't have the energy to complain anymore.” Ashley said, her voice tinged with inspirational amusement. “And what did I get out of it?” She asked Maria, who was listening but still not in the best of moods. “A broken ass?” She quipped sarcastically, but Ashley smirked and gave a chuckle. “I'm one of the best damn instructors they have at that academy. I even taught your sister everything she knows and now SHE'S an instructor. Admittedly still green, but an instructor.” She corrected Maria, keeping her hands on the wheel as she drove through the street. “...And a broken ass.” She added jokingly, before breaking out into a healthy laugh. Maria slipping a short chuckle with it as well.

“You remind me so much of myself I couldn't help but do something like this for you.” Ashley commented, Maria just observing her as she drove. “But I have to make sure this is your decision, with that I have a proposition.” She said, Maria nodding her head and placing her arm on the armrest. “What is that?” Maria asked pensively, Ashley reaching up to pad her on a shoulder. “You join my team, and I'll let you show Sienna that you weren't a failure like she thought.” She asked of Maria, Maria looking a little confused by it. “I traded Florence and Erika to Sienna's team in exchange for Lily coming over to mine, and now I'm down one person, you could fill in that slot with no issues since everyone knows you already.” She proposed, Maria nodding her head gently as she explained. “If you think I can do that... What about Sienna?” Asked Maria, still unsure of herself. “She holds no sovereignty over you as of today. An instructor's job is only to look after their own students and nothing more.” 

Maria nodded again and sighed. “I'll do it...” Ashley smiled at her and leaned her seat back just a bit as she drove. “You can do this Maria, I'm choosing to believe in you instead of throwing you away. You'll even get to stay in a different dorm.” Ashley stated, Maria nodding before leaning her seat back up. “How did you get that eyepatch?” Asked Maria, Ashley shrugged her shoulders and looked up at her. “I fought a rift fallen tiger one on one... I didn't win, so now I'm an eye short. Lily was lucky, her eye got only slightly damaged and she'll get her vision back eventually, I lost the whole damn thing.” She explained. “My depth perception is shit, but I try and compensate for it.” She continued, shifting a gear to go up a steep hill. 

“Can I ask something, Ashley?” Maria said, Ashley glancing at her and giving a nod. “Can we stop a couple of blocks up? I want to see my old house.” Ashley nodded and fell silent as she drove up to the home in question.

She got out of the car at her old home. The yard and the walkway were both the same, the grass was slightly overgrown and there was a sign of a real estate agent trying to advertise the house to buyers. She looked up the walkway to the home and it was completely repaired, but repainted a maroon color and looked to be completely vacant on the inside. The lack of blinds on the windows didn't help the case. She sighed and walked slowly up to it and placed her hand on the cherry wood door, gently sliding her hand down it since it was the same one as before. She sighed a bit and gently walked along the side of the house, hoping the gutters would catch the rain. 

She went around to the other side and walked along it until she was shocked by something smacking into her foot. She yelped in pain and began to hop on one foot as she hissed a sharp inhalation through her teeth, looking down at what she hit. It was a pair of wooden doors to a walk in basement or crawlspace It normally had a padlock, but it seems to have been broken off. Possibly by the people who came and stripped the house of most of it's belongings after Maria moved out to the boarding school. 

She knelt down and flipped open the doors to the basement, sending some dust flying as she peered into the dank hole. It was dark, but the light of the overcast sun was enough to make it dimly lit. She assumed it didn't have electricity because who would pay electricity for an unoccupied home. It was dim and empty, the floor was covered in particle board, and the ceiling was coated with what appeared to be fiberglass insulation. 

She dipped her head down so she didn't hit her head on a water pipe or something, but felt her hair begin to hit the spider webs set up in the dark. It was nearly impossible to see until she felt her eyes slowly become accustomed to the darkness. Making everything dim and not too colorful, but the outlines were visible. 

She wandered around curiously, she didn't really understand why she went into the basement, maybe she was curious? Maybe she was just sick of being out in the rain for the last couple of hours? She didn't really know, but suddenly an object grabbed her attention. She reached down and felt it with her hand. It felt smooth to the touch, so she grabbed it and picked it up. It was some kind of cloth, fairly long. But she couldn't make any details of it. She walked closer to the entrance of the basement to get more light as she realized that she was holding a scarf. 

 

It was a bright red color close to a shade of crimson, but it was tattered and frayed at the edges with the occasional hole along it's roughly 7 foot length. Maria concluded that it must have been moths eating away from it to have it so damaged after a couple of years. “The movers must have dropped this...” Maria said quietly to herself, remembering suddenly that this scarf was her mother's. A small couple of tears began to roll down her face, and she had to hold back a heave as she dusted it off and wrapped it around her neck. It was kind of a long scarf, the back of it going to nearly her waist as the other side was wrapped on her neck and shoulders, wide enough to cover most of it. She stood up and climbed back out into the rainy outdoors. A free hand dusting her hair free of cobwebs as she walked back to the van that was waiting for her. 

She opened the door and got back into the passenger's seat. “Where did you get that?” Asked Ashley, Maria looked up her and softly ran her hands along the tattered fabric. “It was something that belonged to my mom... I didn't expect something like that to be here.” Maria replied as she looked up at Ashley, hoping to get herself to calm down a bit as she was driven back to the academy. After 20 minutes of silence, they arrived at the academy, shutting the doors and heading back inside of the dorm facility.

She walked past Maria's old dorm, went across the hall and used the key to open the new dorm room, where Jonah, Gabriel and Lily were all standing shoulder to shoulder. “Welcome back, Maria.” Lily said with a soft smile. Her bandages her gone, replaced with a black eyepatch, the claw marks were closed up with what appeared to be dissolvable stitches. 

“What's with the scarf?” Asked Jonah, Maria shrugged her shoulders as he walked up to inspect it, pulling it off of her. “Hmm.. This is kind of ratty.. maybe I could fix it.” Maria stared at him as the red scarf fell off of her shoulders. “Fix it?” She asked, Jonah grinned at her and wrapped the scarf around his arm. “I was the leader of my textile club back in high school.” Jonah boasted proudly, but Maria just snickered quietly to herself. “Leader of a textile club...? That's the girliest thing I've ever heard.” She said with a smirk, Jonah stuck out his tongue and complained at her. “Hey! Don't dismiss the almighty powers of sewing.” He complained, Maria shaking her head and lightly bopping him in the shoulder with her fist. Nowhere near enough to hurt. “Appreciate it.” She commented quietly, and he just smiled at her. 

“So... Why did you leave the team?” Asked Maria, the water soaked teen walking over to look at Lily as she looked down at her, Lily sighed and shook her head. “I just didn't feel like staying in the same room as Morgan, we have a long way to go after that fistfight we got into.” She replied with a tinge of regret, Maria tilted her head and leaned onto one of her legs as she inspected the room. It seemed nearly exactly the same as her old one, though she assumed all her stuff was packed and moved here while she was absent. “I guess I understand... Do you hate Morgan?” 

Lily shook her head and looked away regretfully. “No... Not at all. I just feel like I'm not ready yet to spend more than a little time with her. I'd like to be her friend, just... I want to give her space.” She explained, looking at Maria, crossing her arms over one another for her frilly sleeves to show a little more. “Anyway, I'd rather be with you than three people I barely know.”

Maria nodded some and cracked a slight smile. “Yeah.. we go way farther back than anyone else here.” She replied, Lily came up to hug Maria tightly, her face pressed into one of her shoulders as she sighed. Maria returning the hug quietly before letting go. “Am I always this short?” Maria commented from being able to compare their heights for once, and being nearly 5 inches shorter than Lily. “Yep, You are.” Maria sighed and let go, when suddenly she was tapped on her shoulder. Maria spun around and Ashley was holding up a belt with two crossed scabbards, blades resting inside of them. 

“These are the weapons I used to use before I changed out. They do a damn fine job at what they're supposed to do.” Ashley spoke, presenting the blades. Drawing one from it's scabbard and showing it to her. A pair of red handled short swords roughly 20 inches a piece, fuller down both of them to save weight, both of them having dark metal colored cross guards. They were straight, and the blade smoothly tapered to the point. 

She handed one of the blades to Maria, letting her hold it by the grip. She lightly held it out and swung it up and down a couple of inches. “These are heavy.” She commented, and Ashley nodded. “They have thicker steel than normal swords this size. Mostly so even a little bit of speed is enough to hack something off a monster.” Ashley explained, Maria placing it back in the sheathe and taking the belt, strapping to her waist and placing a hand around each blade. “It's also super ergonomic.” Ashley added, Maria nodding her head some as Maria spoke. “Whatever ergonomics is, I'm all for it.” She grinned and took it back off, placing it in a closet for now until she had a much more safe place to put it.

Ashley smiled and rubbed Maria's head. “This weapon was called 'Sangris' when I used it. As for why.. I just thought it sounded like a cool name for a weapon. But yeah guys, I need to leave. I hope all of you get along.” Ashley said, before closing the door, leaving the four people in their dorm room. Jonah looked at Maria from head to toe and noticed that she must have been in the rain for a while. “So uhh... Do you want a towel?” He asked her nervously. 

“Yeah.. I kind of need a towel...” Maria replied, sick of being wet and muddy and covered in dirt and leaves.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love introspection way too much.


	12. The Class Act

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now for an awkward attempt at comedy.

Chapter 12: Class Act, Part 1

The alarm began to ring as Maria was snapped out of the first night she's had without any nightmares. She groggily shook her head, she groaned and rolled over to try and turn off the alarm, but instead went careening over 6 feet to the floor with a loud thump. “Ow...” She groaned in pain, but the slam caused Jonah, sleeping underneath of her to quickly wake up in shock. “WHAT THE HELL!?” He shouted in surprise, looking down at Maria on the floor. Maria sighed and dusted herself off, throwing the blankets that went down with her back onto her bunk.

A small, white kitten with green eyes walked up to Maria and bumped his head against Maria's leg. Jonah got out of bed and revealed his blue full body pajamas with pictures of white roses on them.”You alright...?” He asked out of concern, but Maria shrugged her shoulders. “It happens... Is that a cat?” Maria replied, as Lily and Gabriel got out of their own bunks on the other side of the dorm room.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that! That happened while you were gone yesterday, Maria. I thought maybe our dorm could have a pet or something to lighten up the mood. I know you lost your cat in the accident n' all.” Lily said, immediately contradicting her previous statement of lighting up said mood. Maria reached down to pick it up, staring at it face to face as it gave a friendly meow. “At least it looks cute enough.” She commented, the cat leaning up to bump it's nose against hers.

“What should we name it?” Jonah asked, Lily smiling and pointing her finger in the air as she spoke. “I was thinking... Snowy.” She suggested, Jonah looking at it with a squint and poking it with it's finger. “I was thinking something cool... Like Onyx.” He commented, Maria pulled it into her arms and it curled up as she looked at him nonplussed. “Onyx is a black gem, Idiot.” Maria corrected, staring down at it. “I know that... I was trying to be ironic.” Jonah complained, annoyed by Maria not being phased by his special sense of irony. 

“Well, let's see what Maria thinks!” Lily suggested enthusiastically, Maria held up the cat eye to eye and stared at it. Her moody red ones meeting with it's green eyes of vacant stupidity. It meowed again at her and kicked it's feet some more. “How bout... Cat.” Maria stated with a completely straight face. Everyone else in the room just quietly face palmed. “Maria... That name sucks.” Jonah said with the most disappointed voice imaginable. Maria put the cat down and shrugged her shoulders, even while everyone couldn't even bother to look at her. “What...? I'm not that creative.”

Lily sighed and turned to Gabriel next. “Well... We haven't asked you yet, what do you think?” She requested of Gabriel, Lily picking up the cat to gently pet him in her arms. Gabriel started to scratch his chin as he fished for ideas. “Lord Tiberius Meowsby The Third.” Everyone look dumbfounded for a second, before Jonah cleared his throat. “Uhh... All in favor for not using that name...?” He asked, Maria raising her hand and quietly saying “Aye.”

“It was only just a suggestion!” Gabriel commented, chuckling to himself and walking over to his clothes drawer to get his uniform out. Maria sighed and rolled her eyes before heading to the drawer herself. “Oh crap...” She said, turning around and looking away. “What is it, Maria?” Lily asked, Not sure what her problem was this time. Maria crossed her arms in front of her chest as she looked away. “I didn't buy a replacement outfit after I got out of the hospital.” Maria explained, but Jonah quickly responded by pulling open the drawer and digging around a little bit. “You can wear my jacket and pants, Maria. Florence left his old ones in here and I could just wear those.”

 

He explained, Maria blinking a bit as Jonah pulled out his school uniform, handing it to her. “These might not fit on you, but they'll do for now.” He commented, Maria grabbing it and holding it up in front of her. “What do you mean it won't fit?” She asked, but Jonah just looked at her face to face. “You're like 5 inches shorter than me, Roth. It'll be kinda loose on you.” He replied.

Maria sighed and tossed the jacket over her shoulder, grabbing her good shirt and his pair of pants and going into the bathroom to change. Jonah shook his head and took out Florence's pair for himself, folding it under his arm as Maria got the pants on, which were kind of baggy due to the height difference. Her jacket was longer than her waist, but she seemed to struggle when it came to buttoning it up. “This doesn't fit my chest...” She complained, but Jonah looked confused. “Doesn't fit your chest? But isn't it supposed to be loose?” He asked, But Gabriel lightly bumped Jonah on the shoulder, and it suddenly dawned on him what that really meant. “Oh!... Sorry Maria... I didn't expect that to be a problem for you.” He said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head since he didn't know how else to address it.

“I'm not tiptoeing around the subject.” Maria commented, still trying to button the last button for her jacket. “They're really impractical, get in the way and I hate them with all of the hate I can muster.” She said, commenting about the fact she's happened to develop a larger than average chest over the past couple years. Lily, suddenly embarrassed by that looks away as she commented. “That never was a problem for me...” She said, shamefully, but Maria just glared at her. “I actually envy that.” She said, before giving up and just leaving her coat unbuttoned, and not even bothering with her tie. “Screw it, this will have to do until I get my clothes fitted again. I'm getting no money this month so I have no choice but to improvise.” She replied, but Lily just frowned at that. 

“You're not get any money this month...?” Lily asked with a hint of sadness to her voice, as Jonah walked into the bathroom to change his clothes out as well. Maria crossed her arms and sighed. “Yeah, I got fined for wrecking the other dorm room and it left me in the red.” Maria responded, Lily frowning and pulling out her overly thick money clip once again. “Don't worry, I'll help you out.” She said, trying to grab the right Geld note to give to Maria, but Maria walked up and placed her hand over Lily's to get her to stop.

“I don't really want your pity, Lily.” Maria asserted to reject Lily's offer. Lily just looking slightly puzzled by her actions. “I'm trying to help, it isn't pity... how else are you going to get any food? Or replace your coat?” Lily observed, Maria shaking her head and releasing her hand from atop Lily's. “You have me on the food bit.. But at least let me buy my own coat. I want to feel like I have at least some semblance of responsibility.” Maria explained, Lily nodding and pulling a small note and handing it over to her to pay for lunch later. “If you need my help for anything, Just ask.” Lily replied, But Maria spun around and started to head for the door.

“Also, you need to go down to a pet shop and get the kitty's name ingrained on a tag. We're going with snowy.” Lily added as Maria opened the door and turned back to face the three of them.

“I'll be at the cafeteria.” Maria said, closing the door behind her. “Does she always cut off conversations like that?” Asked Gabriel. “No clue at this point.” Lily sighed, walking into the restroom after Jonah came back out to get dressed next. Maria went down the stairs and out of the dorm to head to the cafeteria for breakfast. The sky was still overcast from the recent cold front that brought all the rain along with it. She opened the doors and began to look around for a seat to take, once again finding the white haired girl sitting in a corner, but now flanked by a red haired boy and a dark skinned girl.  
“Hey, Snowy.” He said with a mocking tone, Leaning his hands on the table as she quietly tried to eat her breakfast. “Did your Clan Chief tell you to come out of your igloo and move to the academy?” He assumed, The darker skinned girl giving a chuckle at that and leaning over to watch her eat. “Nah, she must be one of those espionage types.” She replied to his comment. “Watching her enemy behind enemy lines before wiring back to their leader about everything we're doing.” The boy shook his head and shrugged her shoulders. “Nah... They're probably too busy dancing around a campfire to do espionage.” The young man countered, the dark skinned girl chuckled and leaned in closer to Cassandra. “Well, what's the story? Why are you here?” She asked, Cassandra quietly bit into her sandwich once again as she tried to ignore them both.

The girl got impatient and scowled, grabbing Cassandra by her white hair and giving it a firm tug in her direction hard enough to get her to stand up and not let her hair get out. She winced and inhaled through her teeth as she looked up at the slightly taller girl. “Are you deaf or something? Tell me why you're here?” She said in a somewhat threatening voice, Cassandra sighed and quietly responded. “I have nothing to say to you.” 

The brown haired girl gritted her teeth, but also had a kind of smirk to it as she reared back her fist. “What was that? I think you need to speak a little louder.” Cassandra was about to speak as she closed her eyes, getting ready for a punch when suddenly a voice shouted at the group of three from across the table. “Hey!” Maria shouted, glaring at them both as she walked in to them grabbing her acquaintance's hair.

The green eyed girl looked up at the angry redhead with a chuckle. “The hell do you want?” She said sarcastically amused. Maria stormed over around the table and grabbed the taller girl by the forearm, squeezing it firmly in her grip. The girl swung a punch and Maria quickly caught it in the other hand. The brown haired girl releasing Cassandra's hair from her hand as Cassandra quickly sat back down in her chair, looking away from them both. 

“For both of you to fuck off.” Maria replied, The girl chuckled and placed her hands on her hips. “Oooh, Shorty has lip on her. And what do you expect to do about it?” She mused sarcastically, Maria grabbing her firmly by her tie and tugging her to eye level. “Listen up, You're gonna turn around and you walk away and leave both of us alone.” Maria barked at her, nearly close enough to bump their foreheads together. “Or I could make your teeth a fond memory.” She added as a threat, the brown haired girl responding by pushing her off, even if Maria pulled the tie off with the movement.

The red haired man spoke up as Maria glared sharply at the taller girl. “Just forget this crap, Elaine... We have a fighting club meeting in an hour.” He responded, The girl shrugged her shoulders and then spat at Cassandra, the saliva smacking one side of her face. She quickly grabbed her sleeve and wiped it off without saying anything, looking down more at the table. “You're both lucky.” She commented conceitedly, before turning around with the red haired boy and walking away.

“You forgot your tie, dipshit.” Maria commented, slinging the fabric so it smacked the back of her head. Elaine growled and grabbed her tie and balled it in her fist as she left the cafeteria with the boy. Maria sighed and the anger faded from her face as she scooted the chair back beside Cassandra to sit right next to her. “So... How often does that happen to you?” Maria asked, lightly rubbing on the back of her shoulder for a second before turning to the table.

“More often than I'm okay with...” Cassandra said, her voice trembling slightly from being upset. She lifted her hands up to rest her chin on them, looking at nothing in particular. 

“Well... Do you know that brown haired bitch?” Maria replied, looking at her as Cassandra reached up to fix her pulled hair back into it's natural position; a shoulder length layered/curly look. “Elaine's dad was killed by Astrians in the war 20 years ago, I overheard that one time in a conversation.” She answered, frowning just a bit as she lightly traced circles on the table. “That doesn't mean every Astrian killed her dad, I don't get why people aren't over that already” Maria commented, but Cassandra just gave a soft chuckle and looked up at the florescent lights slightly flickering. “Yeah, but it's not that easy.” She replied, sounding deflated somewhat. 

Maria leaned up and put her elbows on the table to look a bit at her face. “What do you mean?” Maria wondered, tilting her head slightly as she listened to Cassandra. “No matter how much you want it to happen, Maria. The world will never change the way you want it to.. The push and pull of one person against the world is pretty negligible.” She explained, Maria sighing and leaning back in her chair in frustration. “Ugh.. whatever I guess...” She shrugged off, not really sure as how to reply to that as the door suddenly opened and three familiar friends came walking in shoulder to shoulder.

“Hey! Over here!” Maria shouted, raising one of her arms and swaying it around to try and get their attention. They quickly noticed and approached the nearly empty table, Jonah, Lily and Gabriel all sitting down together. “Hey, who's the friend?” Jonah asked Maria, looking at the white haired girl with curiosity. She seemed kind of pretty to him, but she didn't look like she was in the best of moods either.

“Cassandra, she's more of an acquaintance really.” Maria explained, the room was filled with chattering that all blended together in the echoes of the gray painted walls of the huge cafeteria. Maria quickly stood up and grabbed her tray, turning around and eyeing the food area. “I forgot why we came here for a minute...” Maria said with an awkward chuckle. Jonah quickly shouted over her shoulder as she was preparing to walk off, making her step stutter. “Hey, Get me an omelet while you're there, too!” He requested, Maria looking back and giving him a semi-annoyed glare. “Am I your waitress now? Get your own damn omelet.” Maria snapped back, before calmly walking off to get her own food. Jonah just looked down and sighed in disappointment. 

“Why does that never work?” Jonah asked himself, before Gabriel lightly patted him on the back and gave him a reassuring grin. “It's okay, Jonah. You'll acquiesce an omelet from a random girl someday.” He said, Jonah just staring at him and blinking a couple of times. Gabriel had this habit of saying weird stuff to try and lighten the mood, though he wasn't entirely sure he was always like that. “Ooookay then.” 

Gabriel finished his small espresso and stood back up. “Actually, I forgot to call my sister. I should go n' do that” He said, quietly walking off as Maria got back to the table, now a folded egg and cheese omelet next to a glass of milk. “They charged me 5 bucks for an omelet, it's nuts how much they gouge you here...” Maria complained, using her plastic fork to cut into the side of the fluffy omelet, quickly starting to eat it, speaking whenever she swallowed. “How much does it cost to make a damn omelet? I bet it's like 50 cents for like 2 friggen eggs, a Geld for the salt and pepper shakers and you can reuse those...” She ranted on, Cassandra looking at her and giving her a smile.

“Actually, if you're part of the Cooking Club you get a 20% discount.” She stated, Maria dropping her plastic fork onto her plate in pure shock from this serious revelation. “For real?” She asked, Cassandra nodded. “On top of that, if you're in Advanced Cooking you get a 40% discount, but I just make all my own food instead.” She said, and Maria's jaw hit the proverbial floor.

Maria looked seriously at her, lowering her brow and glaring at Cassandra. “This injustice must be rectified... Tell me of this mythical Advanced Cooking Class.” She said very melodramatically, causing a groan from pretty much everyone else on the table. Jonah leaned back up and gave an amused chuckle. “100 years ago called, Maria. They want their vocabulary back.” He said, sarcastically. Maria growled and stood up, slamming her hands on the table. 

“YOU WILL NOT STOP THIS FOOD RELATED RETRIBUTION!” Maria shouted, causing students from other tables to stare out of her from pure confusion. “Uhh.. Maria, you're causing a scene...” He remarked quietly, trying to get her to calm down. “I AM LOUDER THAN YOU!” She shouted to try and prove a point. Possibly a point that didn't even matter in the long scheme of things, since she was currently making a fool out of herself. 

Cassandra shrugged off Maria's loud confusing antics and explained. “Well... The school requires you to pick a minimum of 2 electives. Those are side activities you can do between your combat training, it goes from life skills like cooking and sewing, to hobbies like playing chess or tennis. There are also classes you can take instead that actually give you credits for when you go into a college. I'm taking a college credit course along with advanced cooking.” She finished, looking at everyone else sitting along with her, she wasn't used to talking so much around so many strangers.

Everyone started to converse among themselves to discuss the possibilities. “Awesome! I was the leader of my sewing club back in high school... I could join them again!” Jonah said with a casual enthusiasm, Maria kind of glaring down at him out of pure curiosity and slight disdain. “You're really devoted to the sewing thing, aren't you?” She remarked, Jonah staring up at her and cocking a brow. “Well, that means I could get your scarf fixed while I join.” He explained, Maria suddenly turning around her opinion on the issue. “Oh, you should totally do that.” She said flatly, Jonah gave an amused sigh as Lily started to speak up. 

“College credits seem kind of beneficial... “ She said quietly to herself, as Cassandra continued the role of explaining things to the younger freshman of the school. “You could probably find a lot of pamphlets about it up at the front desk. Keep in mind you have 4-6 hours of physical training for the next couple of months, you should build around that schedule.” Cassandra clarified, finishing her sandwich and rolling up the baggie she put it in into one of her palms.

Maria stood up, pulling her hands from the table and stuffing them in her pockets, she was wearing a sly grin on her pale face as she turned to look at the door. “Well I know where I'm going.” She stated eagerly, walking away from the table and toward the front door. “I'll be seeing you guys once I get a discount!” She shouted to everyone else. Lily looked back at everyone else and rested her chin on one of her palms, going up to adjust her eye patch a little bit once again. “I think that was the first time I've ever heard Maria excited for anything.” She commented, Jonah nodding his head and leaning back for a yawn. 

“Yeah, but we should get our food...” He complained, they were talking for nearly 15 minutes and didn't even bother to start eating anything, Jonah slid his chair back and got up, only to be surprised by Maria standing right in front of him. “Woah! I thought you just left?!” He exclaimed, Maria nodding some as she looked down at the table. 

“Yeah, I forgot my omelet.” She said slightly dumbfounded, grabbing her food off the table and wrapping it up in a napkin before she turned away to walk off. “Okay, for real this time.” She said as she left once again.


	13. Prize Fighter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maria, after a horrific failure decides to find her calling in a hobby much more close to home.

The smell of charred flesh filled the air as cold vapors of carbon dioxide spew from it's cold, plastic maw. Dousing the flames of hatred and cooling the very air itself in a dense fog akin to the cool nights of the north country. The fog began to settle as it formed a chill down to the very core of your soul, a feeling that was never felt before in the beautiful crimson eyes of the young female...

In actuality, someone just sprayed a fire extinguisher onto the pan of burning meat. “Miss Roth! What is the meaning of this!?” The man holding the fire extinguisher shouted at Maria, currently clad in an apron covering over her chest, it had singe marks on it from being so close to the flame.He was wearing a white double breasted chef's jacket along with a toque draped on his head. He had a huge curly mustache and appeared to be entering his 40's if one could guess.

Maria looked down at the charred remains of her food sitting on the stove, the burns singed away the wallpaper on the back and the smoke was slowly being sucked away by the fume hood. It was probably the only burnt one of the rack of brushed steel stoves lining each side of the wall. “Uhh... The meat didn't act like I thought it was going to...” Maria complained, sounding unsure of herself.

“Well, not only did you mess up your heating element, you've damaged the wall, and the stove itself! Why did you turn it up so high?” He said, his hands on his hips as he expressed indigence for the new recruit. He knew it was her first day, but he didn't expect a disaster as big as hers to show up on recruitment day. “Well Mr. Stevenson... The meat wasn't heating up fast enough and I thought it would help.” She explained meekly, trying to shrug off the stares of other students who looked at her in fear.

“...And you didn't warm the pan up first?” He asked, confused by how she decided to even join advanced cooking when she didn't even know that very basic thing. “Well... I didn't think you'd have to. I turned on the burner, put the oil in and tried to cook the meat like you asked me to.” Maria said, trying to justify her actions to the instructor.

“And yet you turned the burner all the way up, igniting the oil.” He chastised, Maria sighing a bit and looking at the charcoal that was her meat. “Yeah I friggen know already.. I tried to put it out, though!” She complained, but he wasnt hearing any of it and raised his voice. “YOU CAUSED AN EXPLOSION BY THROWING WATER ON IT!” He shouted, Maria blinking and raising a finger as she spoke. “Actually, I think it was a conflagration.” Maria observed, but that seemed to just enrage the cooking instructor even more.

“I don't care about semantics, You lit a bunch of things on fire!” He declared, but Maria started to grow annoyed, furrowing her brow as she glared at him. “Look man, it's mostly wallpaper damage. I'll clean up and we can reset the te-” The sprinklers spraying the entire classroom cut her off, quickly getting her and everyone else wet and just made Maria even more unhappy. “...Damn it.” She commented, looking up at him and placing her hand onto the now wet stove.

“You're going to have to pay for both the fire AND the water damage, by the way.” He explained, but Maria just pulled her thin lips into an even bigger frown. “Look, Miss Roth, maybe advanced cooking isn't for you.” He observed, Maria quickly pulled her apron off and stuffed it to his chest, making him quickly grab onto it and jerk back as she turned to walk away out of the classroom. “Fine, I concede.” She admitted, closing the door behind her as Cassandra chased after her out of the door, Maria started walking down the white and red colored halls as the white haired girl caught up to her. “Oh don't worry, Maria... There's always regular cooking!” She said, trying to cheer her up.  
“I'm not sure I'd be allowed anywhere near a stove while I'm still here.” Maria commented as she walked up to her own locker, twisting the combination and popping it open to pull out the schedule for other elective classes. “I guess that could be a problem...” Cassandra commented, Maria waiting for some students to pass before pulling it open and reading it over. “Do you know what other hobbies do you have that you could turn into a class to join?” She asked, Maria slipping through the pages. “You know, I didn't realize I didn't have any interesting hobbies until just now...” Maria admitted from embarrassment, looking away and flipping the next page as she kept looking at classes she wasn't interested in.

“Hmm.. Maybe just pick a random one and hope for the best?” Cassandra suggested as they continued to walk one of the long hallways, Maria stopped walking as she inspected one club opening that she recognized. “Those assholes who grabbed your hair... What club did they say they were going back to?” Maria asked with curiosity and an agenda, Cassandra looking at her concerned as Maria kept glossing through the pages.

“Why? Isn't that whole ordeal over now...?” Cassandra questioned, wondering what Maria was planning on going to do. But Maria just looked up at her with a pretty serious glare on her face. “I need to go and talk to them in private.” Maria said somewhat menacingly, but Cassandra gently shook her head. “It was the fighting club, but... couldn't we just report them to faculty? They'll get an indictment, or something.” She countered to try and dissuade Maria for whatever she was going to do. Maria just shook her head as she slid her hand along the pages of the book until they stopped at the fighting club. “Unfortunately for you, I made up my mind already.” Maria commented, closing the book and tucking it under one arm as she broke out into a jog and starting to outpace Cassandra's walking.

“Wait! Come back..!” Cassandra shouted at her, but by the time she called out, Maria was already lost in the crowd of students crossing between classrooms. “Don't do anything crazy...” She said in defeat, clearly quiet enough for Maria to not even hear her. Though she just assumed Maria was going to ignore her anyway.

Maria went down the stairs to the room the fight club was being held, a fairly large room on the first floor with a sign on it that said 1-08. She grabbed the door and twisted it open to find a pretty large facility. The floors were made of polished wood, with blue mats resting on it for sparring or working out, on one side was what appeared to be a full boxing ring. There were students in rows jumping rope, along with an older man in his 40's punching and kicking on a heavy sandbag to practice various different combos. When the door swung open and smacked into the wall behind Maria, He looked at her with a big goofy grin.

“Well hello there! Welcome to my special fighting club... for fighting!” He said through a thick accent. He might have been from Ingrand, the country to the south which was known for being... lively to say the least. The semi-old man walked up to the short grumpy teen, hands on his hips as he looked down at her. “What brings you here?” He asked, Maria glancing around the room to see that girl she confronted earlier, but not seeing her just yet. She might be in a different area, since it was a pretty large gym.

“I'm looking to join your fighting club.” Maria stated calmly, the guy kept his goofy grin as he walked to her and placed a hand on her shoulder and pushing her forward just a bit. “Oh, then you should pay close attention to what I'm gonna tell you!” He said, not being able to keep his voice below shouting level.

“Back in my day, I was a bouncer at a club! Then I became a boxer and punched a lot of ass! Then I joined Spectrum and kicked a lot of ass! Now I'm here, Teaching people how to hit people in the ass.” He explained, leaving Maria completely confused. “Uhh... I'm not sure that helped me.” She trailed off, not exactly sure what he wanted to hear. He walked in front of her and crossed his arms. “Well I'll give you the simple version.” He said, preparing to explain, his hair was shaved completely bald to possibly cover up the fact he had a receding hairline, he had tanned skin and a blonde stubble on his face to match his light hair color.

“This is a club for ass kickers, a club made for ass kickers to fight other ass kickers when we're not fighting Rift Fallen. If you wish to join, I'll get the papers and sign you up, but then we'd need to begin initiation.” He said, walking away from her and heading to another door, but not before turning to face a random man who was just standing and watching the scene going on. “Two hundred push-ups, Jeffery!” He demanded in a surprisingly commanding voice. Jeffery sheepishly nodded and dropped to his stomach to start doing push ups as the strange man closed the door behind him to grab paperwork.

“Yeah... Sebastian is weird, he knows a thing or two about fighting though.” A girl commented behind Maria, who quickly spun around to come across a familiar face. It was Morgan, sporting a black eye, her black hair in a shoulder length mess and strapped into a rough ponytail. “Morgan, why are you here?”

Morgan slung her backpack over one shoulder and grinned at the shorter girl. “Oh, as soon as I heard this club was an elective I joined pretty much immediately. If you were going to join, what took you so long?” Morgan asked her, giving a yawn and stretching as Maria replied. “I went to the cooking club and they asked me to cook up a streak; I made fire instead.” She said sheepishly, crossing her arms. Morgan gave a chuckle to that and patted her on the shoulder. “Eh... Cooking was never my thing, either.” She said to try and console Maria for her massive failure, but Maria lightly pulled her hand off of her shoulder and looked up at her.

“Off topic, I know. But why did Lily attack you?” Maria asked from nowhere, Morgan sighed and looked at the floor for a second while Maria continued to stare her right in the face. “I just.. hate the types who have the potential to help people out and just squander it. Maybe it was just an assumption on my part.” Morgan replied rationally, as Maria reached up to stroke her own chin.

“But you don't really know if Lily is that type or not.” Maria replied honestly, Morgan putting her hands on her hips as they stood across from each other, just in front of the door so no one could hear them. “That's a possibility, but when you're the daughter of a mysterious dude who runs a conglomerate you kind of make the assumption she's been groomed to his agenda...” She stated, Maria glaring up at her and sighing. “Look, I've been her friend for like.. 7 years now, She isn't like that.” Maria contested, not actually raising her voice for an argument once in her life.

“I need time, Maria. Don't force us to reconcile just because you don't like it.” Morgan replied firmly, Maria looked away as instructor Sebastian came back into the room with a clipboard and pen in one hand, spinning it around and handing it to Maria. She started to quietly observe it as he spoke. “You'll need to sign these papers, it's pretty much telling the school board that you're okay with people caving your face in with hilariously hard kicks.” He explained, Maria just looking dumbfounded when she stared up at him, hand grabbing at the pen while she just felt the wave of confusion wash over her.

“...Excuse me?” Maria said incredulously, Sebastian placing his hand on his hips and giving a hearty laugh. “It's a fight club! You're supposed to get kicked in the face.”  
Maria just blinked and slowly slid her head back down to look at the contract, a bunch of small print legalese she didn't even want to bother reading into. “By the way, Maria. It's pretty true, I got kicked in the face like eight times.” Morgan chimed in casually, but Maria just stared at her like she'd just gone mad. “Morgan... You need to get checked for a concussion.” She said, before popping the cap off of her pen and quickly signing her name on the dotted line. “I'm in.” She added, before handing it back to Mr. Ritters. He looked it over, pulling a small pair of spectacles from his pocket to see the fine print.

“Wow, Ms. Roth... Your hand writing is terrible.” He casually snarked at her, Maria glaring up at him and watching him fold the paper up and setting it aside on a nearby table in quiet annoyance. “I'll process those later,” He said casually, Maria giving him an unblinking stare while he used one of his hands to wipe off his nose, before placing his hands on his hips. “Welcome to the fighting club... What brings you to the ring, Weasel?” He asked matter of factly, Maria lifting a brow and tilting her head slightly from the confusion she had. “...Weasel?” She questioned, He chuckled and pat her on the shoulder. Maria quickly grabbed his hand and lightly pulled it off. “Yeah. You're small and fierce like one of those weasel types! I think it fits perfectly.” He tried to explain, though Maria didn't even want to bother with an argument.

“Yeah... Whatever.” She shrugged it off, crossing her arms over her chest and looking to the floor. “I was uhh... looking to improve my fighting.” She said to try and cover up the fact she wanted to join to call someone out. Sebastian frowned at her and shook his head in disappointment. “Nuh uh, little missy.” He said, bopping her on the head with his hand like she was some kind of dog who just piddled on the carpet. “You didn't look me in the eye, so you're lying.” He deducted with his strange moon logic, Maria stared up at him nonplussed as she admitted the truth. “Fine, I want to beat someone up without getting in trouble.” She said with a hint of humiliation in her voice.

There was a lull in the conversation, before he suddenly made her jump with his loud response. “Good enough to sign up!” He shouted boldly, Maria reaching up to try and quell the ringing in her ears. “Jeeze... Really?” She asked incredulously, not believing that was literally all the reason she could need to join. “Yep, just tell me who's ass you wanna kick and we'll set up a little quickie-fight for the two of you.” He said enthusiastically, Maria blinking a couple of times and looking around. “Is there an 'Elaine' here?” She asked, and instructor Sebastian just pointed to one side.

There stood the girl lightly jumping ropes with quite a bit of finesse. She had caramel colored skin with dark brown chin length hair and sharp green eyes. She probably was taller than Maria but that isn't a surprise to the disgruntled redhead anymore. She was clad in a black tank top and a light white pair of sweat pants and quietly counting to herself as she jumped rope. “Just head over there and challenge her to a fight, she's never said no before this.” He commented, Maria gulping slightly and getting enough resolve to walk up in front of her as she jumped the rope.

“101...102...103..” She muttered with each jump, it was surprising that should keep up with how fast she was skipping, but when she laid eyes on Maria, she stumbled and got tripped up enough to almost stumble. She sighed and balled up the jump rope into one hand before throwing it aside. “Damn it, You threw off my rhythm...” She complained, looking up at the short angry redhead currently glaring daggers at her. “Oh, you're the kid from earlier.” She stated flatly, Maria tilted her head slightly and shook her head. “We're gonna fight.” Maria replied coldly, not really wanting to mince words with the jerk she met earlier.

“You must be pretty brave to follow up on what you said, and you need even more guts to challenge me on home turf.” She commented with a small sense of respect hiding under her disdain.

“Yes or no?” Maria asserted, Elaine snickering a little bit and putting her hands on her own hips. “Wow, you mean business.” She casually mentioned, Maria glaring up at her as she talked. “There has to be something in it for me before I give any of my time, kid. What's it gonna be, Money.. a dare...?” She asked, Maria shrugging her shoulders before replying. “Loser quits the club.” She declared calmly, the girl grinning a bit in her over confidence. “Now we're talking!” She replied with a grin, walking over to the boxing ring and shouting at the redheaded male she was with earlier. “Hey, Eddie! Get me my gloves.” She requested of him, he walked over to a small cupboard and promptly grabbed a pair of padded 6 oz gloves that covered the knuckles with a layer of padding, but allowed the fingers to stay free, along with that pair, he also slung a second pair in for Maria that bounced off her head when they smacked firmly into them with a skilled toss.

“OH YEAH! I love impromptu fights!” Sebastian shouted, quickly running his way into the four sided boxing style ring and getting in between both of them. “Look ladies, if we're gonna do this, we're gonna do it right.” He said, looking between the both of them as Maria slipped her gloves on. She gently punched her own fists to feel their fit, it was slightly loose on her hands but nothing too serious. She took a deep breath to calm her quickened heartbeat while she observed her opponent as she warmed up.

“Alright you two. No elbows, no headbutting, no hitting the groin, no grabbing the ropes. This will be for three rounds of 3 minutes. As there are no judges in this impromptu fight, if this fight finishes at the third round then this will be considered a draw.” He explained the rules to them both, they both nodded their heads as he left the ring to stand upon the apron. “Each side will have a coach for advice and throwing in the towel if need be, you can win by knocking your opponent out, making them submit or getting knocked down three times total, if you're down for 10 seconds without defending yourself, you'll lose.” He continued, before turning to address the 15 or so people attending the class that day.

“HEY! WHO WANTS TO BE THE WEASEL'S COACH?” He shouted to all of them, Maria groaned and reared her head back at him to shout. “You dick!” She muttered sharply, and Morgan raised her hand for her.”I'll do it!” She replied with her somewhat deep female voice, climbing up the corner and grabbing the turnbuckle. “Alright, that's good enough for me.” He replied to her demand, turning back and looking at them both. “And... Fight starts with the bell!” He announced, grabbing an electric timer of the small timekeeper table. Along with that, he grabbed a small black hammer used for striking the bell resting just beside it attached to a small chain. The bell rung out nice and clearly as Maria suddenly charged out of her corner.

She shouted and caught Elaine off guard, shoving her to the ropes using her shoulders by spearing her firmly in the stomach. This was enough to make the heavier girl smack into the back of the padded turnbuckle as Maria reared up her punches, spreading her legs and planting firmly into the ground to launch upper cuts at Elaine's face. She growled and swung like a wild animal as Elaine pulled both of her arms up to guard the punches. Her fists smashing into her arms and making both Maria's fists hurt from smacking into the forearms, and the clear bruises on the forearms from the punches making it tender.

She lurched back and planted a boot into Maria's chest, forcing her to backpedal and not fall over, as that would count for a down. Elaine reared back for a haymaker, but Maria quickly slipped to one side to deliver a sharp hook to her liver. “That's right, Maria. Be a tiger! LITERALLY BECOME A TIGER!” Morgan shouted at her, but the sentence seemed like complete nonsense as Maria backed away from Elaine to glare at Morgan. “Morgan, what the hell does that even mean!?”

Maria sighed and turned back to suddenly get blindsided by a running kick to the jaw by Elaine, her head feeling like it just nearly got pulled apart by the force, she got launched forward and landed on her face after sliding a few feet. “Down!” The instructor shouted, heading back into the ring and pointing to Maria as she rolled onto his stomach and slowly pushed herself off the ground, shaking her head as the ringing in her ears began to fade. “3! ...4! ...5!” He counted roughly each second, she lightly slipped her finger between her lips and pulled out to check for blood, but there was none. Before quickly getting back onto her feet and putting with Elaine's nearly instant dive toward her.

Maria dipped a right hook and landed some jabs, bouncing on the toes of her dress shoes to try and begin to circle her with jabs, hoping to get her to turn her shoulder and land a straight to the face. She fell for the bait and shifted her feet to turn and face Maria, but predicted the swing and duck it to land a hard body blow to Maria's stomach. Maria groaned as she felt her feet lift slightly off the ground, dropping onto her feet and getting smashed in the side of her head.

She began to stumble off to one side, feeling like she was about to fall before realizing what just happened, planting her foot wide and crouching down to keep standing. Suddenly, Elaine stepped in for an uppercut as Maria leans her head away just fast enough for the glove to only graze her chin and nose. She couldn't even breathe a sigh of relief as Elaine spun her hips to launch a high roundhouse kick at her. Maria deftly grabs the swinging leg and grabs it under her arm, causing it to firmly slam into her side. “Screw you!” She growled and shoved her leg to force her to fall onto her back, Maria collapsing ontop of her and quickly scrambling to land mounted punches to her face.

Maria grabbed her by the head and smashed her dominant hand; her left hand straight into Elaine's face over and over again until a small amount of blood began to spill from her mouth. Suddenly, the bell rung and Mr. Ritters grabbed Maria by the shoulders. “Round's over, cupcake.” He commented, Maria spitting onto the mat underneath her and walking back to her corner, where she see's Morgan awaiting her. “What the hell was with the tiger comment?” Maria asked as she walked back to her corner for the 90 second break. “Well... I was messing with you.” Morgan stated outright, Maria glaring daggers at her as she promptly reached down to pull out a crunchy chocolate candy bar from her pocket and unraveling the wrapper to take a bit out of it. “Mhhh.. Chocolate rice bar.” She said serene by the melty crunch of a cheap vending machine candy bar.

“Really? A chocolate bar?” Maria complained at her, she nodded and glared at her. “Hey, coaches always have chocolate on them, it's tradition.” She argued, but Maria quickly swung and smacked the chocolate bar out of her hand, having it fly through the air and smack on the floor, some of the pieces falling off of it and touching the floor. Morgan looked unamused by this altercation as she glared at Maria. “...I'll resent that.” She replied firmly, before slinging a towel onto her shoulder and leaning up to inspect Maria's face. “How bad are you roughed up?” Morgan asked, Maria shook her head and crossed her arms. “That kick to my face hurt, but I'll live.” She replied, leaning back as Morgan rubbed her shoulders some. “So uhh... advice on how to beat her in under 2 rounds?” Maria asked, Morgan looking up at her and watching her talk to Eddie.

“Well... She has the reach and power advantage, but if you stay REALLY close, she can't use her full swings anymore.” Morgan observed, Maria nodding and standing back up to get ready for the next round. “And don't forget to be crazy.” She added as Maria walked back to the center as a student got ready to ring the bell. “Don't worry, I'm always crazy.” Maria commented jokingly as the bell rung. Elaine charged out of the gates for Maria but she responded by quickly ducking her punch and landing her own cross-counter at Elaine's full running speed, drilling her in the jaw and forcing her onto her knees as she slid onto her back. “Down!” Sebastian shouted as she looked at her spilled on the floor.

Maria turned her back and was getting ready to lean back against the ropes to wait until she got up, but before she got there, a sharp pain started to grow in her right arm. She quickly clutched at her forearm and doubled over to hiss in pain. The punch she just landed hurt her arm pretty easily before a suddenly burst of clarity formed in her head. 'Fuck... It's the wound I got from the exams, It hasn't healed yet...' she thought to herself, looking down and notices small drops of blood forming on the clean white bandage.

She started to clutch it as Elaine slowly stood back up, putting her fists back up at the count of 8. “You hit pretty hard for someone your size... But I still hit harder.” She stated to try and taunt Maria, who weakly balled her right hand into a fist while her left one clutched much harder. She has no choice but to swing left punches or else her wound will open again. She leaned in and tried to follow Morgans advice and get too close to her so she couldn't swing full punches. Maria threw a faint with her right before landing a sharp hook straight in the chin, but any other punches she would through were blocked once again by a full guard. Maria dipped down and tried to swing another punch at her stomach, but Elaine responded by hiking a knee upward and bashing it into Maria's temple.

Maria's head got smashed backward, standing her up and feeling like her head was in the clouds. She lightly began to stumble randomly around the arena, but was still seemingly able to keep her balance as Elaine launched herself in for the killing blow. Maria shook her hair and gained enough composure to grab her arm and slam her into the ground face first, then grabbing her arm and pulling it up to wrap both of her legs around her neck to try and choke her out and yank out her arm at the same time. 

“GIVE UP, DAMN YOU!” Maria shouted with a dizzy slur in her voice, yanking firmly to try and dislocate Elaine's shoulder, but she just groaned and slowly got onto her knees, making Maria's legs lift slightly into the air. She then got onto one knee and lifted herself back onto her feet, Maria dangling off while trying to keep hold of her arm and neck. She then began to slowly walk to the center of the ring, lifting her arm straight into the air with Maria still grasping onto it. “...SCREW YOU!” She shouted back at Maria, falling forward and slamming Maria straight onto her back. She screamed in pain but only tightened her grip on her head and shoulder, forcing Elaine to stand back up and smash her into the mat once again with a dull thud.

Maria was getting her back smashed into the ground from a 7 foot drop over and over again, so on the second time she was slammed, she was forced to let go. She slowly clambered back onto her own feet, since that didn't qualify as her getting knocked down, but the slamming knocked the breath and some of the consciousness straight out of her. She struggled to put up her fists, but tried her best to fight her off. Elaine was fortunately hurt as well, trying to adjust her shoulder and neck to shake off some of the soreness, but the bell rung once again and Sebastian stood between them once again. Maria limped back to her corner, which Morgan grabbed a nearby stool just before Maria collapsed into it.

“That was insane.” Morgan commented, Maria lurching over to try and catch her breath. “F-fuck...” Maria coughed out, trying to get rid of the sharp pain in her lungs. “My body is giving out on me.” She continued, rubbing her arm and shaking her head. “Another three minutes and we'll draw, if that's any condolence.” Morgan expressed, But Maria pulled the stool out of the ring and growled as she turned to face her opponent. “I'm going for a win, not a draw.” Maria replied, standing up and rubbing the soreness out of her neck.

“Well, you could try punching yourself in the face over and over again to confuse her!” Morgan commented, but Maria didn't even bother to look at her this time since last time she just got kicked firmly upside the head. She walked to the center of the ring before the break was over. Elaine was sitting in her corner as Eddie tended to her sore shoulders. “You hanging in there?” He asked her, She just looked up at him and gave a chuckle. “She's tougher than I thought... But this still shouldn't be a problem.” She commented, standing up and stretching just a bit as the bell rang and they met up in the center of the ring.

Maria was forced to keep her right hand on the defensive, making all of her jabs completely useless since she can only throw a straight with her other arm unless she swapped her stance around. Elaine through a rough punch with her weakened shoulder, making it falter and allowing Maria to dip under it, plowing an uppercut firmly into her chest that was hard enough to make her back off a step. She pulled her left hand back and smashed her fist firmly into Elaine's face. Elaine gritted her teeth and smashed her fist back into Maria's face, but Roth returned in kind. This turned into a punching contest in the center of the ring, where each person threw their best left to bash each other in the face.

They reared fully back for each slug until each one had a swollen up and blackened eye on the same side of their face, Maria backing off and trying to flank her by charging to one side and smashing her fist into the side of her head, but Elaine quickly spun around and smashed a back fist into Maria's face. Maria groaned in pain, but pushed through the stinging feeling in her face. She leaped up and wrapped her arms around the back of Elaine's head, pushing her head down and drilling a knee straight into her face.

She pushed her forward, leaning her into the ropes and bashing her knees over and over again into her chest as she kept trying to overpower Maria and get herself free of the constant wall of kicking. She pushed Maria onto her back, but Maria quickly rolled into her shoulder and stood back up. Elaine dove in to land another knee, but Maria pushed it aside with an open palm, reaching up to smash her into the stomach with her forearm. She leaned up, taking a quick swing on the face but using just perseverance alone to shrug it off, nailing her again and again with hammering lefts as she tried to not use her right arm.

Elaine pushed her off, kicking her firmly in the stomach and forcing her to bend down so she could try to bash her in the back of the head, but once again Maria eluded the strike and backed off into a free corner. Elaine grinned and charged at her, but she tucked her head and bent her knees down in response. Elaine couldn't stop thanks to her own momentum, and was forced to watch Maria dip back up and slam a punch straight into her jaw. This rattled her hard, forcing her to stumble backward step by step to keep her balance from toppling backward. Maria took this as an opportunity, running up and leaping to smash her knee straight into Elaine's chin with enough force to send them spilling onto the floor together. “They're both down!” Sebastian shouted when both didn't follow up on that attack, Maria smashed the back of her head into the ground below and was just as shaken up, so she stumbled on her feet and clutched the back of her head as Elaine was stuck on the floor.

“5! ...6! ...7!” He counted her out as Maria turned around to walk back to her corner, pretty sure that it was finished until she was shocked by what she heard. “9... She's back up, Roth!” He said, Maria turning around and quickly getting back into her fighting stance as Elaine made a mad dash at her, smashing her fist into Maria's face and pushing her back into her own corner to begin to wail on her.  
Hooks, uppercuts, straights, smashes, body blows came in flurries against Maria as she got rattled in the corner, she pulled up a block and tried to take it, but felt like she was fading out. She couldn't even see where the punches were coming from. All that she knew was her legs were getting heavy and she was becoming less and less able to feel the dull pain from each strike growing collectively on her. She slowly began to sink her guard as she got pummeled.

 

'DING' sounded the bell, as it signified the end of the final round, Sebastian pulled Elaine off of Maria as Maria leaned back into her corner to keep herself standing, her vision slowly coming into view as she observed Elaine speaking to her instructor. “Sorry, time out means a draw.” He replied to something Maria was still too woozy to understand at first. “Really? She dropped her guard! I thought it was over.” She complained, but he shook his head. “I'm sorry El, this was a draw, not a victory.” He rationalized calmly, She sighed and walked up to Maria, pulling off her own gloves and extending a hand. “Look kid, I know you wanted to defend your friend and all.. but it's a bit much for just some insult tossing.” She mentioned to Maria, Maria pulled off her own gloves and took a deep breath, gently shaking her hand for only a brief second.

“Everything isn't black and white, Elaine... Cass was an orphan and was raised by Rosewall parents instead. “Elaine spit a spot of blood onto the floor as she sighed. “You guys need thicker skin, I got shit talked all the time when I first moved here since my parents were originally Gebyrian.” She complained, trying to make it sound like it was less malicious. Maria knew about Gebyria, it was to the southwest across a pretty big ocean, it was pretty much a huge mixture of desert, jungle and islands. All of it hot as hell and unpleasant to live in. “Look, I heard from Cass about what happened to your dad... It's fucked up, but that doesn't mean every Astrian killed your dad...” Maria tried to reply, Elaine looking somewhat frustrated and looking at the floor.

“I'm old enough to realize that, kid.” She replied resentfully, looking up at Maria. “I respect you for actually wanting to fight me, but don't try to pull this PSA preachy bullshit on me. I did it because it made me feel better, okay?” She ranted at Maria, returning a dissatisfied glare at the Gebyrian as she replies. “At least give her a chance, okay?” Maria asked, but Elaine just sighed to herself and exited the ring to leave the club for now. She hasn't lost, but she at least needed some time to cool off. Maria gave a sigh of relief as she turned to walk up to Morgan. “Hey Roth, Good fight.” Morgan said, reaching into her pocket and pulling out another chocolate bar from her hand and holding it out for Maria.

Maria smiled a little and grabbed the chocolate bar, inspecting the wrapper a bit as she replied. “Wow, thanks Morg-” She got cut off, as Morgan swung an uppercut at her hands to punch the candy bar, making it fly through the air and land somewhere behind her. “W-wha!?” Maria stammered from her own confusion. “HOW DOES IT FEEL!?” Morgan shouted at Maria to spite her over the destruction of her previous chocolate bar. “YOU HAVE BEEN FORCED TO TASTE THE SHAME OF LOSING YOUR CHOCOLATE.” She continued, but Maria just blinked and looked completely confused at her. “Bad...” She replied, pouting at her as Morgan started to break out into a laugh and pat her on the shoulder. “Well... Training starts next week Roth, see you then.” She said, grabbing her chocolate bar on the ground , putting it back into her pocket and leaving the room as well. Sebastian walked up to speak with Roth last.

“Your papers still need to process, so you should just head home for now.” He explained, Maria nodded and exited the ring, leaving the club and heading back to her dorm to rest. Hours later, Jonah was walking back to the same dorm room with a repaired dark red scarf wrapped and folded over his arm, twisting the knob and heading inside to quite a strange scene. Maria was sitting in front of a small television resting on a nearby desk, sitting on a reversed chair and resting her arms on the front of the chair as she watched a man on the television. He was fat and depressed looking as he quietly was trying to make nachos using cheese sauce and chili and put it into a small microwave to the left side of him. “So then we uhh.. put.. the cheese stuff in the microwave... and uhh.. Be careful because hot things are hot.” He stammered, hitting buttons on the microwave and turning it on so it began to quietly hum and rotate the bowl.  
“Ya know... I might have put too much cheese in there since... I'm horrifically alone and I assume that anyone watching this is gonna microwave by themselves. Don't microwave this much cheese unless you're going to sit alone and... I don't know, watch a movie or something.” The fat man said on the TV, Jonah walking up beside Maria to look at her, her face was in a dull trance glaring at the TV like she just saw a war crime on the television. The cat climbed up in front of the TV and curled up against to start falling asleep, Maria suddenly snapping out of it to look up at Jonah.

“This is the saddest thing I've ever seen.” Jonah commented, staring in pure shock as this strange man continued to cook in just behind the small white kitten. “I have been watching this for 3 hours.” Maria said, her voice flat and empty as that man's soul as she stared blindly at the lights flickering through the cat's fur. “May I ask why?” Jonah requested, Maria leaning back and shaking her head quickly to try and break the emotional monotony. “Uhh.. Lily found out from Cassandra I got banned from the cooking class for 6 months, so she bought me a TV and EVERY COOKING DVD she could find. Every single one is hosted by this guy named Butterburg... He's this fat lonely guy who owns a pizza chain in Rosewall or some crap.” She ranted at him, he placed her scarf onto her lap and smiled down at her.

“The people at the knitting club were so nice, they even helped me fix the scarf and even made it fireproof!” He said with pure enthusiasm, Maria lifting the scarf and looking it over, running the smooth fabric over with her thumb to realize that the ratty frayed scarf was now smooth and silky. “Wow... This is actually really good.” Maria admitted, lightly curling it around her neck and having it hang off her shoulders. “Glad you like it.” He replied with a smile. “So what were you doing today?” He asked, Maria leaning back and rubbing her still sore face as she looked up at him. “Well.. I joined a fight club and got to punch someone's face.” She spoke brazenly, though he just looked confused at her. “What? I thought you joined a cooking club.” He argued, but Maria shook her head and sighed. “Uhh... I made fire instead of food.” She admitted sheepishly, looking up at him and watching his reaction.

“HOW DID YOU DO THAT!?” He stammered in confusion, She just placed her chin into her palm and sighed some. “Uhh.. Don't underestimate how bad my failures can be, I guess.” She commented, Jonah facepalming and looking up at her. “Well.. just be ready for training next week, they're gonna run us raw with how much they're going to make us work out.” He warned, Maria stood up and turned to face him, crossing her arms together and nodding.

“I'll be ready.”


End file.
